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Formula: Ca4Fe3+2(PO4)4(OH)2.3H2O
Hydrated phosphate containing hydroxyl, whiteite group
Crystal System: Triclinic
Specific gravity: 2.97 measured, 3.38 calculated
Hardness: 2½:
Streak: White
Colour: Pale yellow, brownish-yellow; pale yellow to pale lemon-yellow in transmitted light.
Environments:
Xanthoxenite is an uncommon secondary mineral resulting from the alteration of triphylite
in complex, zoned, granitic pegmatites (Mindat, Webmin), associated with
triphylite,
apatite, whitlockite,
childrenite–eosphorite,
laueite, strunzite,
stewartite, mitridatite,
amblygonite and siderite (HOM, Mindat).
At Tom's quarry, Kapunda, Mount Lofty ranges, South Australia, xanthoxenite is associated with
ushkovite, apatite,
leucophosphite, mitridatite and
dufrénite (AJM 17.1.27).
The co-type localities are the Hühnerkobel Mine, Zwiesel, Bavaria, Germany and the Palermo No. 1 Mine, Grafton county, New Hampshire, USA.
At the Palermo number 1 mine xanthoxenite occurs abundantly as one of the last formed of the hydrothermal products of the alteration of
triphylite. Open cavities in the triphylite
crystals are lined with crystals of quartz, siderite,
apatite, whitlockite,
childrenite–eosphorite,
amblygonite and other phosphates formed during the later stages of
hydrothermal mineralisation, and it is upon these minerals that the xanthoxenite is deposited (AM 34.692-705).
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