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Chernikovite mineral

Chernikovite is a hydrated hydronium uranyl phosphate mineral, represented as (H3O)(UO2)(PO4)(H2O)3 in the September 2026 IMA list. Its status A and 1988 s.p. entry indicate approval by a special procedure, not a numbered 1988 proposal identifier. The Handbook describes a tetragonal member of the meta-autunite group. This species is distinct from calcium autunite, meta-autunite, dissolved uranium and phosphate-rock feedstock. The study below identifies a laboratory precipitate by comparison with a chernikovite powder pattern; it does not examine a natural chernikovite ore or establish a phase-pure product. No uranium criticality designation is inherited by the mineral.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Chernikovite-assigned precipitation using fungal phosphate-rock broth

biomineralization Microbial

Associated Organisms: Talaromyces funiculosus (NCBITaxon:28572)

Broth conditioned by the fungus reported as Penicillium funiculosum supplied phosphate released during incubation with phosphate rock. After filtration to remove hyphae and rock particles, addition of uranium produced a precipitate whose diffraction pattern the authors assigned to chernikovite. The microbial contribution is upstream conditioning of the broth; precipitation was examined in the filtered broth and does not demonstrate a requirement for living cells during crystal formation. This is a laboratory uranium immobilization experiment, not uranium reduction, ore extraction or industrial production of a recovered mineral.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
The isolate came from Guangdong uranium-mine tailings mud and was identified by the Guangdong Institute of Microbiology; no strain deposit or sequence accession is supplied. The phosphate rock was reported to contain 13% phosphorus and was ground to 150 mesh, but its mineral composition was not established. The source describes 200 mL modified Pikovskaya broth in 500 mL flasks, adjusted initially to pH 6, with glucose and phosphate rock. Its abstract states a rock loading of 5 g/L; the Methods lists ingredient masses without an explicit per-liter denominator. Cultures received 2 mL spore suspension at OD600 0.2 and were shaken at 30 degrees C and 140 rpm; live and sterilized-spore groups each had three parallel samples. For the separate filtered-broth experiment, a 0.22 micrometer filter removed hyphae and rock, then 10 mL filtrate was added to 50 mL flasks containing uranium solutions labelled 25, 50, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 mg/L. These are source-reported addition concentrations; the uranium-solution volume and resulting dilution are not stated. After 12 h at 30 degrees C and 140 rpm, centrifuged supernatants were assayed by ICP-MS for uranium and the molybdenum-blue method for phosphate. Solids were washed eight times before analysis. The exact uranium-loading arm used for the diffraction specimen and its drying or humidity history are not specified.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support Source: hu2018
Experimental design on pages 13460-13461 and the XRD results on pages 13463-13464 distinguish three arms: rock dissolution, whole-culture biomineralization and mineralization with filtered fermentation broth. Figure 7b and its embedded Table 2 compare the last arm's precipitate with chernikovite reference pattern PDF 29-0670, including the low-angle 001 reflection and multiple higher-angle reflections. Figure 4 supplies its infrared spectrum; Figures 5c and 6c show the filtered-broth solid and its uranium/phosphorus signals. This supports the authors' phase assignment beyond elemental co-occurrence alone. Their H2(UO2)2(PO4)2·8H2O notation has the same overall elemental composition as the doubled hydronium formula in the Handbook; the experiment does not independently refine hydrogen positions or quantify phase purity.
Partial Source: hu2018
Figure 3 and the corresponding results on pages 13462-13463 show decreasing soluble phosphate and low residual uranium at lower additions, with appreciably more residual uranium at the highest addition. Neither solution depletion nor this diffraction assignment provides an isolated chernikovite yield, a mineral mass balance or proof that every uranium-loading arm made the same phase. The filtered-broth arm lacks a reported matched inorganic-phosphate or pH-matched unconditioned-broth comparator; its replicate count is not separately specified. Specific phosphatase, organic-acid and autolysis mechanisms were proposed, rather than established by direct enzyme, metabolite or pathway measurements. Filtration is described as removing hyphae and particles; independent sterility verification is unreported.
Context_only Source: hu2018
Figure 2 concerns a different arm with live fungus, rock and initially 25 mg/L uranium, compared with a sterilized-spore control labelled heat-killed hypha in the figure. Both arms initially lost substantial aqueous uranium; only the live arm subsequently showed the larger decline, with a transient rebound near day 12 as pH fell. The text reports 47.3 micrograms/L supernatant uranium at day 22, but this is not a chernikovite yield and cannot be transferred to the filtered-broth experiment. Figures 5b and 6b show associated solids without a corresponding whole-culture phase-specific diffraction assignment. Long-term stability, environmental deployment and regulatory compliance are not established by these laboratory observations.

Sources & References

  1. ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. Chernikovite row, PDF page 42; status and special-procedure definitions on page 1. Retained official original rechecked; official URL opened live.
    https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-14)
  2. handbook_chernikovite: Handbook of Mineralogy. Chernikovite, version 1, 2001-2005. One-page mineral description, formula, structure and references.
    https://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/chernikovite.pdf (accessed 2026-10-14)
  3. hu2018: Hu et al. (2018). Utilization of phosphate rock as a sole source of phosphorus for uranium biomineralization mediated by Penicillium funiculosum. RSC Advances 8, 13459-13465. DOI 10.1039/C8RA01344F. Complete seven-page original, Figures 1-7 and Tables 1-2 embedded within Figure 7 inspected; full XML and original figure files independently acquired through Europe PMC.
    https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA01344F (accessed 2026-10-14)
  4. ncbi_funiculosus: NCBI Taxonomy 28572, Talaromyces funiculosus, species; Penicillium funiculosum is listed as a basionym. Current taxonomy XML inspected. This name mapping does not verify the study's unaccessioned isolate.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=28572 (accessed 2026-10-14)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-14T19:44:23Z codex created Added authority-grounded chernikovite identity and a phase-assigned filtered fungal-broth precipitation experiment, preserving distinct control arms, source recipe and dilution gaps, taxon resolution, phase-purity limits and the absence of an isolated-product yield.

Record source: data/records/chernikovite.yaml