Ilvaite

I found a few new items from Dalnegorsk, Russia, including a few fine ilvaite specimens.

Ilvaite Ca[Fe.sup.3+]([Fe.sup.2+])[.sub.2]O([Si.sub.2][O.sub.7])(OH)

Outcrop collecting sites in the Seriphos skarn rocks are well known for producing fine specimens of ilvaite, andradite and, most of all, the world's best "green quartz," but little has been heard lately of the occurrence.

The crystals cluster in small fan-shaped aggregates and in radial sprays perching typically on rose-pink inesite or quartz crystals, with apophyllite, calcite, pyrite and ilvaite. This new mineral species was named for the province of Hubei (pronounced "Hoo-bay").

Skarn deposits on the Aegean island of Seriphos, Greece, are known for their excellent specimens of andradite, ilvaite, amethystine quartz and green (hedenbergite-included) quartz.

Fengjiashan Hubei amethyst, apophyllite, braunite, calcite, chalcopyrite, datolite, hubeite, ilvaite, inesite, japanese twins, pyrite, stilbite/stellarite, wollastonite Fenglin Jiangxi chalcocite Fengsandong Hubei amethyst, bornite, apophyllite, chalcopyrite, datolite, inesite, molybdenite, pyrite, parsettensite, stilbite Fushan Hebei vesuvianite, hematite Fushun Liaoning amber Fuyun Xinjiang, aquamarine, fluorite, garnet, hiddennite, Uygur A.R.

Associated minerals are: zircon, quartz, kainosite-(Y), aegirine, [beta]-fergusonite-(Y), yttrian ilvaite, ilvaite, hingganite-(Ce), neodymian allanite-(Ce), magnetite, fayalite and fluorite.

Hubeite can also occur with massive to radiating pink inesite that can be partly covered by a coating of honey-brown apophyllite and is associated with minor, small, equant, black prisms of ilvaite (Fig.

When the acidity of the fluids increased, magnetite was deposited, sometimes in association with vonsenite and ilvaite (Monchi mine).

Some are simple groups like the pictured one, some are delicate little beds of very lightly intergrown crystals without matrix, some are monster crystals surrounded by small ones; some of the crystals perch daintily atop parallel groups of lustrous black ilvaite crystals, and some are not smooth-faced after all, but are compound growths, with little notches around the equators.

The mines near Dal'negorsk [*] in eastern Russia have yielded world-class specimens of fluorite, pyrrhotite, ilvaite, datolite, danburite and calcite, plus fine examples of apophyllite, chalcopyrite, galena, hedenbergite, manganaxinite, sphalerite and other minerals.

The Dal'negorsk area skarn deposits are famous for crystals of sulfides (galena, sphalerite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite etc.) and also for exceptional high-quality crystals of quartz, calcite, fluorite, datolite, danburite, ilvaite and others.