Hydrocerussite mineral
Hydrocerussite is the Pb3(CO3)2(OH)2 mineral species, listed as grandfathered with original-description year 1877 in the September 2026 IMA master list. It is distinct from cerussite, pyromorphite, elemental lead and lead-bearing wastes. The accepted experiment concerns a hydrocerussite-assigned component in processed bacterial-cell products from lead acetate solution, not a pure recovered mineral or an industrial waste assay. The Kato2022 experiment is also contextualized under lead and pyromorphite; these records are not independent replications. No lead-commodity criticality is inherited.
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)
Hydrocerussite-assigned formation in KKY-29 cell-associated products
biomineralization
Microbial
Associated Organisms:
Pseudomonas (NCBITaxon:286)
Laboratory Pseudomonas sp. KKY-29 suspensions exposed to lead acetate produced cell-associated solids whose ex situ powder diffraction was assigned to hydrocerussite together with pyromorphite. This supports qualified culture-associated formation. It does not establish a unique metabolic carbonate source, microbial necessity, hydrocerussite-specific intracellular localization, selective phase yield or isolated lead recovery.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Kato2022 Results 2.1–2.3 and Methods 4.1–4.5: KKY-29 was selected from freshwater isolates collected around abandoned Japanese mines after lead-tolerance and nanoparticle screening. Figure 5 and partial 16S comparison place it near P. koreensis; the authors retain Pseudomonas sp., and no stronger strain authentication is adopted. Cells grown in nutrient medium were centrifuged, washed in sterile water and shaken in lead acetate solution for 24 h at 25 degrees C. Results 2.2 selects 5.0 mM lead acetate and 1000 mg/L bacterial biomass for further assays; however, the same section and Methods 4.8 also print mg/mL biomass values. SI Figures S2–S3 label biomass in mg/L, while S1 labels dry weight in g/mL. These inconsistencies are retained rather than silently repaired. Initial/final pH, shaking speed and the complete synthetic phosphate-medium recipe are not specified for this mineral assay. Powder XRD used freeze-dried cells crushed with a mortar and pestle, so the identified assemblage is a processed sample, without an in situ mineralization time course.
Kato2022 Results 2.1–2.3 and Methods 4.1–4.5: KKY-29 was selected from freshwater isolates collected around abandoned Japanese mines after lead-tolerance and nanoparticle screening. Figure 5 and partial 16S comparison place it near P. koreensis; the authors retain Pseudomonas sp., and no stronger strain authentication is adopted. Cells grown in nutrient medium were centrifuged, washed in sterile water and shaken in lead acetate solution for 24 h at 25 degrees C. Results 2.2 selects 5.0 mM lead acetate and 1000 mg/L bacterial biomass for further assays; however, the same section and Methods 4.8 also print mg/mL biomass values. SI Figures S2–S3 label biomass in mg/L, while S1 labels dry weight in g/mL. These inconsistencies are retained rather than silently repaired. Initial/final pH, shaking speed and the complete synthetic phosphate-medium recipe are not specified for this mineral assay. Powder XRD used freeze-dried cells crushed with a mortar and pestle, so the identified assemblage is a processed sample, without an in situ mineralization time course.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
kato2022
Results 2.3 and original Figure 7 show reflections labelled H and compared with calculated hydrocerussite reference peaks, alongside P-labelled pyromorphite reflections. Figure 11 likewise contains hydrocerussite-assigned peaks in processed cell products. The assignment supports a component of a mixed assemblage; no quantitative phase refinement, harvested mineral mass or closed lead balance is supplied.
Partial
Source:
kato2022
Results 2.6 assigns phosphate conditions A–D in ascending concentration order, while the Figure 11 caption assigns them in descending order; Figure 10 follows the ascending labels. Results identifies A as pyromorphite and D as hydrocerussite, whereas the Discussion states that phosphorus-free conditions form hydrocerussite and phosphorus-rich conditions form pyromorphite. The original Figure 11 confirms the P/H peak assignments to curves A/D but cannot resolve their conflicting condition labels. No phosphate threshold, optimal condition or direction of phosphate control is adopted.
Partial
Source:
kato2022
Figure 6 electron diffraction and the 0.87 nm lattice spacing characterize pyromorphite, not hydrocerussite. Figures 8–9 show sectioned cells with dense particles and membrane-integrity staining interpreted as viability, but do not identify each intracellular particle as hydrocerussite or demonstrate sustained growth or metabolic necessity. Section preparation in Methods 4.7 includes uranyl acetate and lead citrate staining. Respiratory carbonate generation in Discussion/Figure 14 remains a proposed pathway; phosphate-gene expression is not direct proof of that carbonate pathway.
Partial
Source:
kato2022_si
Original SI Figure S3 includes zero-biomass solution comparisons and shows different remaining supernatant Pb across biomass and lead-dose arms (caption n=3, mean/SD), with little change in the 5 mM arms at 100–500 mg/L. Its caption says the no-metal-solution condition is set to one, although plotted comparison bars are labelled zero biomass; this normalization wording is unresolved. Solution depletion after centrifugation/0.45 micrometre filtration is not a hydrocerussite-specific product yield. No matched sterile or killed-cell diffraction series, phase-resolved mass accounting or control of drying-induced phase changes establishes a unique biological increment in hydrocerussite formation.
Partial
Source:
kato2022
The source proposes future bioremediation and metal recovery. The experiments use laboratory lead acetate solution, with no verified industrial deployment, recovered-product purity, long-term stability test or mineral-specific extraction efficiency. The mine-water origin of the isolate does not turn the synthetic-solution assay into a mine-water treatment trial.
Sources & References
-
ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. PDF page 97, Hydrocerussite row; pages 1–2 explain columns, grandfathered status and distribution terms. Reinspected previously acquired official bytes.
https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-14) -
kato2022: Kato, Y., Kimura, S., Kogure, T. and Suzuki, M. (2022). Deposition of Lead Phosphate by Lead-Tolerant Bacteria Isolated from Fresh Water near an Abandoned Mine. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23(5), 2483. DOI 10.3390/ijms23052483; PMID 35269625; PMC8910126. Complete primary XML, original Figures 1–14 and Tables 1–2 inspected.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23052483 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
kato2022_si: Kato et al. (2022), original supplementary archive for DOI 10.3390/ijms23052483. The eight-page ijms-1594131-supplementary.pdf contains Figures S1–S8; S1–S3 are especially relevant to biomass units, sample conditions and solution comparisons. Same experiment, not independent evidence.
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/ijms/ijms-23-02483/article_deploy/ijms-23-02483-s001.zip (accessed 2026-10-14) -
ncbi_pseudomonas: NCBI Taxonomy 286: Pseudomonas, genus. This parent-rank identifier neither identifies KKY-29 at strain level nor assigns it to P. koreensis.
https://api.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/v2/taxonomy/taxon/286/dataset_report (accessed 2026-10-14)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-14T13:10:04.877052+00:00 |
Codex (GPT-6; codex) | CREATE | Created a distinct hydrocerussite mineral owner from the official species list and complete Kato2022 original text, figures and supplement; retained mixed-phase, unit, phosphate-label, localization, control and recovery limits. |
Record source: data/records/hydrocerussite.yaml