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Colemanite mineral

Colemanite is the CaB3O4(OH)3(H2O) mineral species in the September 2026 IMA list. Status G denotes grandfathering and 1884 is an original-description year, not a sequential approval identifier. It is distinct from elemental boron, the broad borates commodity, and mixed commercial ore. The colemanite-bearing ore experiment below is also represented in cmmmech:borates; this is the same study, not an independent replication or a purified-mineral assay. No commodity criticality designation is inherited.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Fungal leaching of a colemanite-bearing borate ore

bioleaching Microbial

Associated Organisms: Aspergillus niger (NCBITaxon:5061)

Aspergillus niger cultures released soluble boron from a colemanite-bearing ore while producing organic acids. This laboratory observation supports fermentation-associated leaching; it does not establish an exclusive molecular cause, an isolated boric-acid product or industrial performance.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Bayat et al. used growing A. niger, reported as ATCC 11414, and mixed Kütahya-Emet ore reported as 28.05 wt% B2O3-equivalent. Nominal particle size was below 0.075 mm. Methods specify autoclaved ore and sucrose medium, 150 mL in 250-mL flasks, 1 mL of a 3 x 10^7 spores/mL suspension, 150 rpm and 30 +/- 2 C; 1-10% w/v pulp densities were followed for 21 days. Abstract/optimum-condition text instead gives 25 +/- 2 C, and initial pH is inconsistently stated as 5.5 or about 7. Boron was assayed volumetrically in filtrate and acids by HPLC. Replication was at least duplicate. These reporting conflicts prevent treating the protocol as an unambiguous optimum.
Curated Evidence Points:
Methods pp. 3-4, Table 3 and Figures 1-3 support soluble-boron release during culture, acid production and culture-associated acidification relative to the stated no-microorganism control. The species identifier does not independently authenticate the reported strain.
Table 1 reports twelve oxide wt% cells that sum to 126.8%, leaving the bulk composition unresolved. The reported 28.05 wt% B2O3 cell is not normalized or treated as a validated recovery denominator. Table 3 gives no corresponding abiotic boron-release series, so the microbial increment in dissolution is unresolved. Its 5% endpoint pH differs from the Results and optimum-condition text. Figure 4's fitted slope differs from the kinetic coefficient reported in the text. Extraction percentages and kinetic constants are not adopted. The chemical comparison used a different temperature and duration; no isolated-product purity or recovery mass balance was demonstrated.

Sources & References

  1. ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. PDF page 48, Colemanite row; page 1, column definitions; page 2, distribution terms.
    https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-11)
  2. bayat2011-colemanite: Bayat, Arslan and Bayat (2011), Use of Aspergillus niger in the bioleaching of colemanite for the production of boric acid, Electronic Journal of Biotechnology 14(3), DOI 10.2225/vol14-issue3-fulltext-7: Methods pp. 3-4, Tables 1 and 3, Figures 1-4
    https://www.scielo.cl/pdf/ejb/v14n3/a07.pdf (accessed 2026-10-11)
  3. ncbi-aspergillus-niger: NCBI Taxonomy 5061, Aspergillus niger; species context, not strain authentication
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=5061 (accessed 2026-10-11)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-11T09:02:18.252778+00:00 codex (GPT-6; codex) CREATE Created IMA-grounded colemanite identity and qualified fungal leaching of mixed ore without inherited commodity criticality.

Record source: data/records/colemanite.yaml