Fraipontite is a zinc aluminium silicate mineral with a formula of (Zn,Al)3(Si,Al)2O5(OH)4.[2][3]
It is a member of the kaolinite-serpentine mineral group and occurs as an oxidation product of zinc deposits. It occurs with smithsonite, gebhardite, willemite, cerussite and sauconite.[2]
It was first described in 1927 for an occurrence in Vieille Montagne, Verviers, Liège Province, Belgium.[3] It was named for Julien Jean Joseph Fraipont (1857–1910), and Charles de Fraipont, geologists of Liege, Belgium.[4] In addition to the type locality in Belgium, it has been reported from Tsumeb, Namibia; Laurium, Greece; Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England; the Silver Bill mine, Cochise County, Arizona, the Blanchard Mine, Socorro County, New Mexico and the Mohawk mine, San Bernardino County, California in the US; and from the Ojuela mine, Mapimi, Durango, Mexico.[2]
A synonym of the fraipontite is the zinalsite, which was reported in 1956 for an occurrence in Kazakhstan.[5][6]
References
- ^ Warr, L.N. (2021). "IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols". Mineralogical Magazine. 85 (3): 291–320. Bibcode:2021MinM...85..291W. doi:10.1180/mgm.2021.43. S2CID 235729616.
- ^ a b c d Handbook of Mineralogy
- ^ a b c Mindat.org
- ^ a b Webmineral data for fraipontite
- ^ Zinalsite on Webmineral
- ^ Zinalsite on Mindat
External links
Media related to Fraipontite at Wikimedia Commons
