FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Alfredo, why don't you tell us a little about the new species Alfredopetrovite -> Al2(Se4+O3)3·6H2O ? 😊

[Tobi]

[alfredo]

Mineralogist Dr Anthony Kampf, emeritus curator at Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, has become one of the world's most prolific describers of new species. I think he and Dr Igor Pekov in Russia are running neck to neck in getting the world record for describing most new minerals. I've lost track of which of them is ahead now. Tony loves his so-called "retirement", because now he can spend all day every day describing new species, without all the tedious administrative duties one gets saddled with in any large museum.

So, what to say about alfredopetrovite? Perhaps just best to report what Dr Kampf said about it when he informed me he was going to name it after me. He said: "Alfredo, it's microscopic, insignificant, ugly, no color at all - It's PERFECT for you!"

And it has a new structure type, a "lantern structure".

And it's from Bolivia, a country whose minerals I spent many years investigating. Together with my good friends Dr Jaroslav Hyrsl in Prague, and Dr Frank Keutsch at Harvard, we made the list of mineral species found in Bolivia a lot longer than it had been.

The type locality, the El Dragón mine, must be one of the worlds tiniest mines. There was only one vein, averaging just 2 to 4cm wide, and only half a ton of ore was produced over the lifetime of the mine. One of very few ore deposits in the world consisting mainly of selenides, with only a lesser proportion of sulphides. The miner tried to sell it to smelters, but none of them wanted just a small quantity of such an unusual ore.

In the early 1990s I went with the legendary Rock Currier to find the mine owner and buy all of his remaining ore. The owner told us he had 400 Kg of ore, but had buried it somewhere under his big stone courtyard because it was dangerously radioactive! In reality someone (the smelter?) had informed him that selenium was "toxic" and he had not understood the difference between "toxic" and "radioactive". Now he could no longer remember exactly where he had buried it, but he needed money. The next morning he came to our hotel complaining that he had had to spend the whole night destroying his nice stone flagged courtyard, but, yes, he had found the ore. An unusual case of a metal ore mine where most of the ore ended up going to mineral collectors!

[Pierre Joubert]

What a fantastic story Alfredo! That makes this species so much more interesting. Thank you for sharing.

[John S. White]

That is too long a name!(;-). Good thing it is rare so that dealers and collectors don't have to type out hundreds of labels. Could have been only alfredoite or petrovite although the latter is very similar to petrovskaite. Seriously, Alfredo, congratulations. Well deserved.

[alfredo]

Thank you, gentlemen, for your kind comments.

There is also already a petrovicite which, coincidentally, is another selenium mineral and occurs in the same tiny El Dragon ore deposit! Petrovicite is named after a location, not a person.

As for label length, alfredopetrovite is still quite short ;))
New York has a potassicfluorohastingsite. Russia has a potassicmagnesiohastingsite. There used to be a protomanganoferroanthophyllite, but the IMA mercifuly shortened that name to protoferrosuenoite.

[Tobi]

[Firmo Espinar]

Congratulations Alfredo.

Sure this one is the result of a life dedicated to the study of the minerals.

But I think it is not usual that the new species takes the name and surname.

More congratulations.

[lluis]

Congratulation to Alfredo Petrov in first place.

As for taking name and surname, I just remember Wendwilsonite and Calcioandyroberstite and Andyroberstite... I am sure that more could be found...

With best wishes

Lluís

[John Jaszczak]

Congratulations Alfredo! Thanks too for the additional details.

[Don Lum]

Congratulations, Alfredo. This great honor could not have happened to a more deserving person.

Regards,

Don