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Glushinskite mineral

Glushinskite is the magnesium oxalate dihydrate mineral species, Mg(C2O4)(H2O)2, listed as redefined by the IMA in a 1987 special procedure in its September 2026 list. That date is not an approval-number identifier. It is distinct from elemental magnesium, magnesium oxalate without a specified hydration state, and the phosphate mineral feeds in the experiment. This record reuses the Suyamud 2020 experiment represented under magnesium and dittmarite; these are separate material identities, not independent experiments. No constituent-element criticality is inherited.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Glushinskite formation during fungal phosphate-mineral transformation

biomineralization Microbial

Associated Organisms: Aspergillus niger ATCC 1015 (NCBITaxon:380704)

Glushinskite was identified among crystals collected after growth of Aspergillus niger ATCC 1015 on agar containing natural struvite or a synthetic feed identified as dittmarite. The organism grew during this laboratory assay; this is microbial mineral formation rather than an elemental-magnesium recovery process.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Malt extract agar contained 1% w/v natural struvite from a Veolia wastewater-treatment site in Exeter, UK, or synthetic magnesium ammonium phosphate identified by XRD as dittmarite despite the paper's synthetic-struvite terminology. A 5-mm plug from an actively growing colony inoculated each plate over cellophane. Crystals were collected after seven days at 25 degrees C in darkness, extracted from agar with water at 80 degrees C, washed at least three times and dried in a vacuum desiccator before SEM, EDXA and XRD. The selected solid-medium experiment is separate from the paper's liquid-culture assays.
Curated Evidence Points:
Figures 3-5 compare the feed materials with post-growth crystals. XRD traces A and B in Figure 5 are assigned to magnesium oxalate dihydrate against the glushinskite reference pattern, while C and D are struvite and dittmarite feed controls. Figure 4 detects Mg, C and O in the analyzed product crystals; Figure 3 shows their morphology. Figure 5 presents representative patterns from at least three determinations. Table 2 documents acidification in both mineral-fed and mineral-free fungal cultures.
Feed diffraction controls and mineral-free fungal growth do not provide a chemistry-matched abiotic comparison that isolates oxalate production from acidification or proves microbial necessity under all conditions. The Results also describe amorphous debris. The phase assignment is the authors' published identification, not a quantified pure-phase fraction or an isolated recovery yield. Neither magnesium-metal production nor industrial deployment is demonstrated.

Sources & References

  1. ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. PDF page 84, Glushinskite row; page 1 column definitions and page 2 distribution terms.
    https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-11)
  2. suyamud_2020: Suyamud, Ferrier, Csetenyi, Inthorn and Gadd (2020). Biotransformation of struvite by Aspergillus niger: phosphate release and magnesium biomineralization as glushinskite. Environmental Microbiology 22(4):1588-1602. DOI 10.1111/1462-2920.14949; Table 2, Figures 1 and 3-5, Experimental procedures: organisms, struvite preparation, solid-medium solubilization, crystal purification and XRD.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14949 (accessed 2026-10-11)
  3. ncbi_atcc1015: NCBI Taxonomy 380704 - Aspergillus niger ATCC 1015; exact strain entry verified by taxonomy XML on 11 October 2026.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=380704&mode=Info (accessed 2026-10-11)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-11T09:57:28.075910+00:00 codex (GPT-6; codex) CREATE Created glushinskite mineral identity with bounded fungal solid-medium phase-formation evidence.

Record source: data/records/glushinskite.yaml