FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jim Prentiss]

Hello Everyone,

I have recent acquired a Fluorphosphohedyphane specimen and I have found very little about it on the internet. Is there another source of information out there somewhere? I lack nost of the basic information such as hardness, streak, luster, etc. The new dana number would also be helpful, as that is how I catalogue my specimens. The Dana number on mindat is the number for Vanadinite.

Thank you,

Jim Prentiss

[Pete Richards]

An interesting challenge! I was not able to find much... Nothing on webmineral.com, nothing at the Handbook of Mineralogy site at Mineral Society of America. Pierre Perroud's Athena site lists fluorphosphohedyphane (with OH in the formula rather than F, which must be an error) and gives the IMA number but no classification info or other data. There's a recent paper revising the nomenclature of the apatite group which lists fluorphosphohedyphane as the preferred name for the former phosphohedyphane-(F): Eur. J. Mineral. 2010, 22, 163–179 (do a web search for fluorphosphohedyphane and you'll find the URL for it).

I found this citation via web search: Kampf, A.R. & Housley, R.M. (2010): Fluorphosphohedyphane, Ca2Pb3(PO4)3F, the first apatite supergroup mineral with essential Pb and F. American Mineralogist, 95, (in press). However, a search at the American Mineralogist web site does not uncover this paper; apparently it is still in press.

I would guess that, since the mineral was only approved by IMA in 2008 and its name is technically not published yet, the various web databases have not captured it yet, by either the new or the old name. Interestingly enough, the first published mention of the old name appears to be the article which revised it to its new name!

[lluis]

Hi, Jim, Pete

It could be found in mindat

https://www.mindat.org/min-39334.html

Hope it serves

Lluís

[Pete Richards]

Yes, but as Jim pointed out, the Dana number given there is wrong. Since Mindat lists Dana numbers according to Dana's System 8th edition (copyright 1997) and the mineral was not published until 2008-2010 (depending on what you take to be the official publication), I don't know how Mindat will be able to assign a Dana number.... The Strunz numbers do not identify species, only groups.

Given the images on Mindat, its color is white, and presumably its streak is white. But with these very small delicate crystals, determining hardness and luster and even specific gravity (empirically) may not be possible.

[Jordi Fabre]

[GneissWare]

I just attended a presentation by Dr. Robert Housley who is very involved with finding new species at the Blue Bell claims, San Bernardino Co., California. Although IMA has accepted this as a new species, the documentation is still in press, which might explain the lack of information at this time.

[Jim Prentiss]

Thank you Everyone,

I was taken aback when this popped up on my email today. I had put that on the back burner and forgot about it.

I will keep an eye out for future information.

Thanks again,

jimp