Kipushite

kipushite

pseudomalachite

veszelyite

vauquelinite

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Formula: Cu6(PO4)2(OH)6.H2O
Hydrated phosphate contaning hydroxyl
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 3.8 measured, 3.904 calculated
Hardness: 4
Streak: Pale blue
Colour: Emerald-green
Environments

Metamorphic environments
Hydrothermal environments

Localities

At the Block 14 opencut, Broken Hill, Broken Hill district, Yancowinna county, New South Wales, Australia, kipushite is extremely rare, and occurs as 0.1 mm thick crusts and 0.8 mm clusters of bright turquoise-green platy crystals in heavily iron-stained quartzite. It is closely associated with olive-green to bluish green crystals of zinc-bearing olivenite grading rowards libethenite. The kipushite is rich in arsenic (AJM 3.1.47).

At the type locality, the Kipushi mine, Kipushi, Haut-Katanga, DR Congo, the mineralisation consists of zinc, lead, copper and iron sulphides with accessory gallium, germanium, molybdenum, tungsten and vanadium. It occurs in dolostone and schist-dolostone. The thickness of the weathered zone extended to about 100 metres in depth; this zone has now been completely mined out. The most abundant minerals of that zone were cerussite, malachite, smithsonite, hemimorphite, cuprite and hematite, with a rich association of accessory copper-zinc-lead-iron phosphates, carbonates, silicates, sulphates and vanadates.
Kipushite occurs as a secondary mineral in the oxidised zone. Associated minerals include pseudomalachite in dark blue nodules, earthy pale green malachite, blue and green hemimorphite, colourless sticks of pyromorphite, ultramarine crystalline masses of veszelyite, yellow and olive-green crusts of vauquelinite, acicular crystal clusters of libethenite, quartz and iron oxides (CM 23.35-42).

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