Gorceixite mineral

Gorceixite is the barium aluminium phosphate mineral with current IMA formula BaAl3(PO4)(PO3OH)(OH)6, distinct from calcium-dominant crandallite, strontium-dominant goyazite and cerium-dominant florencite-(Ce). The September 2026 IMA list records it as grandfathered, with original-description year 1906. Dzikowski, Groat and Jambor (2006) directly characterized a natural crystal from Crosscut Creek in the Rapid Creek area, Yukon, Canadian Museum of Nature specimen 51269. Electron-microprobe analysis and room-temperature single-crystal diffraction support a Ba-Al phosphate crystal with R-3m symmetry, a=7.0538(3) and c=17.2746(6) angstrom, refined using 253 unique reflections. This specimen-specific result does not overturn monoclinic Cm assignments for all other gorceixite specimens; the authors explicitly retain compositional and locality differences and an unresolved reason for symmetry variation. Chemistry suggests nearly full Ba occupation, whereas the crystallographic Ba occupancy refines to 0.882(6); proposed absorption/scattering explanations are unresolved. Hydrogen-related constraints and an inferred O/OH distribution support charge balance but do not locate every hydrogen atom directly. The study provides natural-mineral identity evidence, not an experimentally demonstrated formation, leaching, microbial extraction or industrial recovery mechanism. No criticality designation is inherited from its constituent elements.

Record source: data/records/gorceixite.yaml