Uralolite

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Formula: Ca₂Be₄(PO₄)₃(OH)₃.5H₂O
Hydrated phosphate containing hydroxyl, beryllium-bearing mineral
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 2.05 to 2.14 measured, 2.197 calculated
Hardness: 2½
Streak: White
Colour: Colourless, white, brown
Luminescence: Uralolite from Dunton Quarry, Newry, Maine, USA, fluoresces yellow-green; uralolite from Ponte do Piauí claim, Taquaral, Brazil, fluoresces medium cherry-red under UV (Mindat); uralolite from the Emmons Quarry, Oxford County, Maine, USA, fluoresces strong yellow-green under short wave UV (R&M 94.6.516).
Environments

Pegmatites

Localities

At the type locality, the Boevskoe Be deposit, Kaslinsky District, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, the deposit occurs in a granitic pegmatite. Uralolite occurs in kaolin-sericite rocks containing fluorite, beryl, apatite, crandallite, moraesite and glucine. It forms concretions composed of radiating fibrous spherulites of diameter 2 to 3 mm and in sheaflike growths, colourless to white, sometimes stained brown by iron oxides (AM 49.1776).

At the Emmons Quarry, Uncle Tom Mountain, Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine, USA, the Emmons pegmatite is an example of a highly evolved boron-lithium-cesium-tantalum enriched pegmatite. Uralolite was identified for the first time at the Emmons pegmatite in 2018. It exhibits strong yellow-green fluorescence under short wave UV. Otherwise it looks very much like moraesite, which does not fluoresce. (R&M 94.6.516).

At the Dunton Gem Quarry, Newry, Oxford County, Maine, USA, uralolite is found in alteration sequence of beryllonite to hydroxylherderite to brown ferroan roscherite to white uralolite (Dana).

At the Turner Mine, Marlow, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, USA, uralolite has been found as tiny crystals, less than 0.1 mm in size, that gave the characteristic yellow-green fluorescent response to both long wave and short wave UV. It is visually indistinguishable from moraesite, which does not fluoresce (R&M 97.3.231-232).

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