Russellite

Russellite is a bismuth tungstate mineral with the chemical formula Bi2WO6.[1] It crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system. Russellite is yellow or yellow-green in color, with a Mohs hardness of ​3 12.[1]

Russellite
Russellite.jpg
Yellow globular aggregates of the rare wolfram mineral russellite from the famous Clara Mine (Wolfach, Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany).
General
CategoryTungstate minerals
Formula
(repeating unit)
Bi2WO6
Strunz classification4.DE.15
Crystal systemOrthorhombic
Crystal classPyramidal (mm2)
H-M symbol: (mm2)
Space groupPca21
Unit cella = 5.43 Å, b = 16.43 Å
c = 5.45 Å; Z = 4
Identification
ColorYellow-green, yellow
Crystal habitFine-grained, compact, massive
Mohs scale hardness3.5
Specific gravity7.33 - 7.37
Optical propertiesBiaxial (+)
Refractive index2.17 - 2.51
Dispersionrelatively strong
References[1][2][3]


Russellite is named for the mineralogist Sir Arthur Russell, and the type locality is the Castle-an-Dinas Mine,[1] near St Columb Major in Cornwall, where it was found in 1938 in wolframite.[4] It occurs as a secondary alteration of other bismuth bearing minerals in tin - tungsten hydrothermal ore deposits, pegmatites and greisens. It typically occurs associated with native bismuth, bismuthinite, bismite, wolframite, ferberite, scheelite, ferritungstite, anthoinite, mpororoite, koechlinite, cassiterite, topaz, muscovite, tourmaline and quartz. 


This article uses material from the Wikipedia article
 Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the 
Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
.