Jun 5 2014
Beaverite is a trigonal-ditrigonal pyramidal yellow mineral, containing sulfur, oxygen, lead, iron, hydrogen, copper, and aluminum. It is a member of the alunite group of minerals.
The mineral was first discovered from the Horn Silver mine in Beaver County, Utah, USA in 1911. It was named after its place of location.
Properties of Beaverite
The following are the key properties of Beaverite:
- Cell Data
- Space Group: R3m
- a = 7.205(5)
- c = 16.994(32)
- Z = 3
- Crystal Data
- Hexagonal
- Point Group: 3 2/m
- As rhombohedral crystals or hexagonalplates, to 0.5mm, typically aggregated into earthy or friable masses and powdery coatings
- X-ray Powder Pattern: 5.87 (100), 3.054 (97), 3.61 (45), 2.280 (28), 3.066 (26), 2.932 (25), 1.807 (22)
- Chemical Composition
| Elements |
Content 1 |
Content 2 |
| PbO |
32.5 |
33.08 |
| SO3 |
23.6 |
25.15 |
| Fe2O3 |
19.13 |
20.38 |
| CuO |
10.74 |
13.95 |
| H2O |
10 |
6.45 |
| Al2O3 |
4.03 |
1 |
| Total |
100 |
100.01 |
- Optical Properties
- Optical Class: Uniaxial (–); strong birefringence
- Pleochroism: O = dark yellow; E = pale yellow
- ω = 1.83–1.87
- ε = 1.85
- Estimated Properties
| Electron density |
Bulk density (electron density) = 4.01 g/cm3
note: Specific gravity of Beaverite = 4.33 g/cm3 |
| Photoelectric |
PEBeaverite = 527.94 barns/electron
U = PEBeaverite x ρ Electron density = 2116.22 barns/cm3 |
| Fermion index |
Fermion index = 0.07
Boson index = 0.93 |
Radioactivity
|
Beaverite is not radioactive
|
How to Identify Beaverite
Beaverite is a yellow mineral, having non-fluorescent luminescence, vitreous luster, and light yellow streak. It has a transparent to translucent appearance. The density of mineral is 4.36 g/cm3, and its hardness ranges from 3.5 to 4.5.
Global Distribution
Beaverite is distributed in the following places:
- Horn Silver mine, near Frisco, San Francisco district, Beaver Co. at the Centennial Alta mine, Little Cottonwood Canyon district, Salt Lake Co. from the Hidden Treasure mine, Ophir district, Tooele Co. Utah
- Boss mine, Goodsprings district, Clark Co. Nevada
- Tombstone, Cochise Co. and from the Grand Reef mine, Graham Co. Arizona
- Blanchard mine, near Bingham, Socorro Co. New Mexico
- Caldbeck and Carrock Fells, Cumbria, England
- Osarizawa mine, Kazuno, and the Kosaka mine, Akita Prefecture, Japan
- Tsumeb, Namibia
- Kipushi, Shaba Province, Congo
- Whim Creek copper mine, Pilbara district, Western Australia
- Tui mine, Mount Te Aroha, New Zealand
Occurrence of Beaverite and Useful Mineral Association
Beaverite occurs as an uncommon secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of Pb–Cu deposits.
It is closely associated with galena, chrysocolla, brochantite, bayldonite, plumbojarosite, bindheimite, carminite, corkite, hidalgoite, osarizawaite, beudantite, duftite, conichalcite, and olivenite.
References