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Minerals to be found in only one location
  
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David




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PostPosted: Nov 26, 2022 16:04    Post subject: Minerals to be found in only one location  

Hello,

Do you know where I can find a list of minerals to be found in only one or two locations worldwide? I've seen the opposite.
I am fascinated by such minerals, considering they can only occur when all the right conditions are met, with a minimum tolerance.
Thank you!

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David
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Romain M




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PostPosted: Nov 26, 2022 16:22    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

I don't know if such a list does even exist, but I can bring my 2 cents on this question:
- Benitoite: Mostly California, except a few in Japan, not the same status at all than the one of California. Same locality also brings the best Djurleite and Joaquinite specimens. Neptunite too, despite this one being found in Greenland, type locality if I remember well. That's a lot of "almost unique" minerals in a potential single specimen!

- Red beryl: Utah mostly, New Mexico has also been mentioned

- Pezzottaite: Those from Madagascar where quite unique, despite some have been further discovered in Afghanistan and Myanmar (those are closer to Morganite actually)

- Tanzanite is also a quite famous one. Even if technically only a variety of Zoisite.

- Phosphophyllite in good quality pretty much only come from Bolivia, the famous old 1950' discovery. Even if type locality is Germany, these ones are definitely several levels above.

- Blue garnet has been found only in Africa if I remember well. Probably Madagascar (or Tanzania?). Not even in specimen, only alluvial.

This list is probably far from being complete :)

Romain
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David




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PostPosted: Nov 26, 2022 19:59    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

Romain M wrote:
I don't know if such a list does even exist, but I can bring my 2 cents on this question:
- Benitoite: Mostly California, except a few in Japan, not the same status at all than the one of California. Same locality also brings the best Djurleite and Joaquinite specimens. Neptunite too, despite this one being found in Greenland, type locality if I remember well. That's a lot of "almost unique" minerals in a potential single specimen!

- Red beryl: Utah mostly, New Mexico has also been mentioned.

- Pezzottaite: Those from Madagascar where quite unique, despite some have been further discovered in Afghanistan and Myanmar (those are closer to Morganite actually)

- Tanzanite is also a quite famous one. Even if technically only a variety of Zoisite.

- Phosphophyllite in good quality pretty much only come from Bolivia, the famous old 1950' discovery. Even if type locality is Germany, these ones are definitely several levels above.

- Blue garnet has been found only in Africa if I remember well. Probably Madagascar (or Tanzania?). Not even in specimen, only alluvial.

This list is probably far from being complete :)

Romain


Hello, Romain,

Thank you, those are some interesting minerals.
I would love to see a blue garnet.

Regards,

David
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David




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PostPosted: Nov 26, 2022 20:09    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

I've tried to assemble a list of minerals to be found in only one locality or region (strictly one). I've also checked on Mindat. For sure there must be many more. Please add if you know others.
Of course there are many more minerals known from 2-3 locations worldwide.
I've found the article mentioned below the list to be very interesting.

1. Agaite - Silver Lake Mining District, San Bernardino, California, USA
2. Alsakharovite - Zn - Seidozero Lake, Murmansk Oblast, Russia
3. Ambrinoite - Signols Quarry, Italy
4. Birchite - Broken Hill, Australia
5. Caracolite - Antofagasta Province, Chile
6. Carbokentbrooksite - Dara-i-Pioz glacier, Tajikistan
7. Chromschieffelinite - Silver Lake Mining District, San Bernardino, California, USA
8. Clearcreekite - Clear Creek Mine, San Benito, California, USA
9. Drobecite - Lavrion, Greece
10. Edoylerite - Clear Creek Mine, San Benito, California, USA
11. Ekaterinite - Zheleznogorsk, Irkutsk Oblast, Russia
12. Ellenbergerite - Cuneo Province, Italy
13. Fahleite - Tsumeb, Namibia
14. Faujassite Mg - Limberg Quarries, Germany
15. Ferruccite - Mount Vesuvius, Italy
16. Gerdtremmelite - Tsumeb, Namibia
17. Gottardiite - Mount Adamson, Antarctica
18. Hanawaltite - Clear Creek Mine, San Benito, California, USA
19. Hatrurite - Hatrurim, Israel
20. Hazenite - Mono Lake, California, USA
21. Hutcheonite - Pueblito de Allende, Allende Meteorite, Chihuahua, Mexico
22. Hydrodresserite - Francon quarry, Quebec, Canada
23. Hydroscarbroite - Scarborough, UK
24. Jadarite - Jadar Valley, Serbia
25. Johnsenite - Ce - Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada
26. Julienite - Shamitumba, Katanga, DR Congo
27. Lavoisierite - Metropolitan Turin, Italy
28. Lulzacite - Bois-de-la-Roche quarry, France
29. Makarochknite - Argayashsky District, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia
30. Mutinaite - Mount Adamson, Antarctica
31. Oboyerite - Tombstone Mining District, Arizona, USA
32. Pizgrischite - Piz Grich, Switzerland
33. Ponomarevite - Tolbachik Volcano, Kamchatka Oblast, Russia
34. Pseudograndreefite - Grand Reef Mine, Arizona, USA
35. Scacchite - Mount Vesuvius, Italy
36. Schaurteite - Tsumeb, Namibia
37. Shimazakite - Fuka Mine, Japan
38. Stottite - Tsumeb, Namibia
39. Swedenborgite - Langban Ore District, Sweden

Sources: mainly Mindat and article in the American Mineralogist - On the nature and significance of rarity in mineralogy, Robert Hazen and Jesse Ausubel, plus several other sources.
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alfredo
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PostPosted: Nov 26, 2022 20:22    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

There are thousands of mineral species found at only one locality: henmilite, ferrivauxite, nikischerite, favreauite, petermegawite... to name only a few that I've happened to be looking at recently, and many many hundreds more.

However, all single-locality minerals are probably destined to eventually be found in more localities. If I think only of new minerals recently described and named after friends of mine, like hyrslite, keutschite, dewitite... they started out very recently as single-locality minerals but have already been found at more places! Sometimes a new species had already been found at other localities before it was even officially described from its type locality, so it started out as a multi-locality species. The bottleneck to finding more localities is often just the time and expense needed to get "good" analyses, and interpretations of the analyses, which are often far from straightforward, rather than any supposed uniqueness of an occurrence.

Not to sound like a wet blanket, but any attempt to make a list (or worse, a collection!) of one-locality minerals is going to get out-of-date very quickly. For example, the Caracolite on your list is now already known from about 25 localities in multiple countries.
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Peter Lemkin




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PostPosted: Nov 27, 2022 01:38    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

While agreeing with Alfredo's caveat, if you look at some technical summary articles on locations such as: Franklin, Mont St-Hilaire, Langban, Tsumeb etc., they often list those minerals they consider as 'only' having been found there. I have several lists of all known minerals [approved at time of printing], and MOST are not in my collection and never will be - as they are either only seen under a good microscope, very expensive or too rare to consider getting. The smaller list would be common or semi-common minerals which most of us know the names of and often have in our collections.
I would hazard a guess that we 'know' of less than 25% of all mineral compounds on Earth that exist. Take Mont St. Hilaire for example. All the very rare [many only found from the Poudrette Quarry or in a very few other locations] were found in quite a small quarry that makes up only ?2%? of a carbonatite stock 'hill' - the rest of which is tree covered and has never been explored. I can only imagine what treasures exist under that forest cover......
Lastly, every now and again new species are found in meteorites, and exotic minerals are hypothesized under the unearthly pressures and temperatures at other locations around the universe. Earth has an unusually large number of species due to life and the oxygen and other waste products it formed - but as we are NOT the only such planet in the universe by any means, other planets with life no doubt have their own areas with many rare species even for that planet - and while many no doubt also found here, many no doubt not...surely not.
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David




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PostPosted: Nov 27, 2022 03:55    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

alfredo wrote:
There are thousands of mineral species found at only one locality: henmilite, ferrivauxite, nikischerite, favreauite, petermegawite... to name only a few that I've happened to be looking at recently, and many many hundreds more.

However, all single-locality minerals are probably destined to eventually be found in more localities. If I think only of new minerals recently described and named after friends of mine, like hyrslite, keutschite, dewitite... they started out very recently as single-locality minerals but have already been found at more places! Sometimes a new species had already been found at other localities before it was even officially described from its type locality, so it started out as a multi-locality species. The bottleneck to finding more localities is often just the time and expense needed to get "good" analyses, and interpretations of the analyses, which are often far from straightforward, rather than any supposed uniqueness of an occurrence.

Not to sound like a wet blanket, but any attempt to make a list (or worse, a collection!) of one-locality minerals is going to get out-of-date very quickly. For example, the Caracolite on your list is now already known from about 25 localities in multiple countries.



Hello, Alfredo,

I appreciate your comments, as always!
Yes, for sure this is a very dynamic list. Probably many minerals discovered during the last 10-20 years are, for now, one or two locality minerals, and many of them get discovered in other locations in time. Not to mention new species being added yearly.
I don't intend to focus my collection on such minerals, but I still appreciate them. Maybe it would be interesting to narrow the list to one locality minerals discovered over 50 years ago, I don't know. But that would only be an exercise.

Regards,
Alex
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David




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PostPosted: Nov 27, 2022 04:04    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

Peter Lemkin wrote:
While agreeing with Alfredo's caveat, if you look at some technical summary articles on locations such as: Franklin, Mont St-Hilaire, Langban, Tsumeb etc., they often list those minerals they consider as 'only' having been found there. I have several lists of all known minerals [approved at time of printing], and MOST are not in my collection and never will be - as they are either only seen under a good microscope, very expensive or too rare to consider getting. The smaller list would be common or semi-common minerals which most of us know the names of and often have in our collections.
I would hazard a guess that we 'know' of less than 25% of all mineral compounds on Earth that exist. Take Mont St. Hilaire for example. All the very rare [many only found from the Poudrette Quarry or in a very few other locations] were found in quite a small quarry that makes up only ?2%? of a carbonatite stock 'hill' - the rest of which is tree covered and has never been explored. I can only imagine what treasures exist under that forest cover......
Lastly, every now and again new species are found in meteorites, and exotic minerals are hypothesized under the unearthly pressures and temperatures at other locations around the universe. Earth has an unusually large number of species due to life and the oxygen and other waste products it formed - but as we are NOT the only such planet in the universe by any means, other planets with life no doubt have their own areas with many rare species even for that planet - and while many no doubt also found here, many no doubt not...surely not.



Hello, Peter,

That is why collecting minerals is so addictive :), one could live for a thousand years and would still find new minerals, new topics, new locations and never get bored :)
It is very exciting to think that the possibilities are practically endless and we can only imagine what new minerals exist on other planets.
For sure future mineral collectors will also be adding the planet of origin on their labels :) This hobby will live forever!

Have a wonderful day!

Regards,

David
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Eric Fritzsch




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PostPosted: Dec 08, 2022 13:49    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

You can create a list of minerals noted from one locality (based on the data in Mindat) by going to https://www.mindat.org/wheel/ and selecting each mineral group (ie sulfides, carbonates, sulfates...) and selecting minerals which are considered "ultrarare" in each group. About 1590 species occur within a single locality. Another 1737 species are only known from 2-4 localities . 1485 mineral species are known from 5-24 localities. Most of what you see at shows is in the uncommon (953 species, 25-124 localities), common (363 species, 125-624) and widespread (180 species found at over 625 localities).

Most of what collectors collect are the widespread and common. You may have a few from the uncommon or rarer categories.

Rock Currier once defined a rare species as "a species so rare that it is frequently not even on the specimen."
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Jordi Fabre
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PostPosted: Dec 08, 2022 14:55    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

Eric Fritzsch wrote:
...Rock Currier once defined a rare species as "a species so rare that it is frequently not even on the specimen"


How true! 😂
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lluis




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PostPosted: Dec 08, 2022 15:03    Post subject: Re: Minerals to be found in only one location  

Hi, all

For the quote of Mr. Currier, I remember what I read some time (looong...) ago about a collection of platinoids...
It was a big collection, around 200 specimens, if I remember well.
Of those, about 50% had nothing (!). Of the rest, maybe the 35% were not what was said to be. So, a mere 15% were true...

Sad...

With best wishes

Lluís
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