Indite mineral

Indite is the iron-indium sulfide mineral species with ideal formula FeIn2S4. The September 2026 IMA-CNMNC list marks it approved and gives the year as 1967 s.p.; this special-procedure notation is not a numbered approval accession. Genkin and Murav'eva (1963) described natural grains in cassiterite-quartz ore from the Dzhalinda deposit, Little Khingan, in the Russian Far East. Reflected-light microscopy, quantitative microspectrographic analysis and powder X-ray diffraction support the identification. The diffraction comparison with previously synthesized FeIn2S4 supports a cubic spinel-type assignment; it is not a new single-crystal structure refinement of the natural material. The measured natural grains had variable, approximately determined iron-indium-sulfur proportions rather than uniformly ideal end-member stoichiometry. Nearly all observed indite grains were replaced to varying degrees by veinlets of the distinct indium hydroxide mineral dzhalindite. Natural and synthetic diffraction intensities also differ for the 311 reflection, which the authors retain in their structural comparison. The ideal species formula therefore does not establish purity of the analyzed grains or of the surrounding ore. The proposed later hydrothermal introduction of indite during quartz-associated replacement of cassiterite is a geological interpretation of textures and associations, not an experimentally demonstrated formation pathway. Cited laboratory synthesis conditions and separate heating experiments on dzhalindite are not natural indite formation conditions. This record denotes the mineral species, separately from elemental indium, synthetic FeIn2S4 materials and the mixed cassiterite ore. No microbial mechanism, extraction yield, industrial recovery or constituent-derived criticality designation is assigned by this identity and natural-specimen evidence.

Record source: data/records/indite.yaml