Lindbergite mineral
Lindbergite is the approved manganese oxalate dihydrate mineral, Mn(C2O4)(H2O)2, IMA 2003-029. The authoritative mineral description assigns monoclinic symmetry and space group C2/c. It is distinct from elemental manganese, natural manganese nodules, the orthorhombic manganese oxalate dihydrate polymorph, and the trihydrate falottaite. No criticality designation is inherited from manganese.
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (2)
Lindbergite-assigned formation during fungal culture with manganese nodule powder
biomineralization
Microbial
Associated Organisms:
Aspergillus niger (NCBITaxon:5061)
Laboratory cultures of Aspergillus niger ATCC 1015 with natural manganese nodule powder produced crystalline material assigned to lindbergite by powder X-ray diffraction. The proposed explanation is manganese mobilization followed by precipitation with fungal oxalate. The experiment supports culture-associated phase formation, without directly measuring oxalate production or isolating an exclusive metabolic pathway. It does not establish a lindbergite mass yield, complete manganese recovery or industrial deployment.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
The accepted powder experiments used mixed natural Clarion-Clipperton Zone nodule sample COG_MN35, not pure manganese oxide or a lindbergite feed. Powder was oven-treated at 105 degrees C for at least 48 hours. In the solid-medium arm, particles below 210 micrometres were added to molten malt extract agar at approximately 60 degrees C to give 0.2% (w/v). Plates received a 5 mm mycelial disc and were incubated for 14 days at 25 degrees C in the dark. The mineral-recovery methods unexpectedly also specify shaking at 125 rpm for this solid-medium arm; the plate figure captions do not resolve that protocol ambiguity. In the liquid arm, particles below 90 micrometres were added at 2% (w/v) to glucose-containing AP1 medium, with 14 days at 25 degrees C and 125 rpm for the analysed pellets. Methods specify a final inoculum of 10^4 spores/mL, whereas Figure 6 reports 10^6 spores/mL for its six-day flask images. Initial and final culture pH are not reported. AP1 contains calcium and trace manganese as well as the nodule feed; no tracer partitions the mineral product's elemental provenance. The species TaxID does not identify ATCC 1015 at strain level.
The accepted powder experiments used mixed natural Clarion-Clipperton Zone nodule sample COG_MN35, not pure manganese oxide or a lindbergite feed. Powder was oven-treated at 105 degrees C for at least 48 hours. In the solid-medium arm, particles below 210 micrometres were added to molten malt extract agar at approximately 60 degrees C to give 0.2% (w/v). Plates received a 5 mm mycelial disc and were incubated for 14 days at 25 degrees C in the dark. The mineral-recovery methods unexpectedly also specify shaking at 125 rpm for this solid-medium arm; the plate figure captions do not resolve that protocol ambiguity. In the liquid arm, particles below 90 micrometres were added at 2% (w/v) to glucose-containing AP1 medium, with 14 days at 25 degrees C and 125 rpm for the analysed pellets. Methods specify a final inoculum of 10^4 spores/mL, whereas Figure 6 reports 10^6 spores/mL for its six-day flask images. Initial and final culture pH are not reported. AP1 contains calcium and trace manganese as well as the nodule feed; no tracer partitions the mineral product's elemental provenance. The species TaxID does not identify ATCC 1015 at strain level.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
ferrier2019
Figures 4-5 compare inoculated and uninoculated solid-medium preparations after two weeks. The inoculated mineral debris has sharp diffraction peaks assigned to manganese oxalate dihydrate (lindbergite), calcium oxalate dihydrate and quartz, against a poorly crystalline uninoculated pattern. Figure 5 reports typical patterns from at least three determinations, without distinguishing biological replicates from repeated analytical determinations. These data support the authors' lindbergite assignment in a mixed recovered solid.
Support
Source:
ferrier2019
Figures 6-8 show powder incorporation into fungal pellets and diffraction peaks assigned to lindbergite in dried, powdered pellets after 14 days. Figure 6 includes an uninoculated nodule-containing liquid flask at six days, while Figure 7 includes no-mineral fungal controls. Pellet formation and broth clearing are physical capture observations, not measurements of pure lindbergite separation or dissolved manganese extraction. The solid and liquid arms belong to the same study and are not independent replication by different research groups.
Partial
Source:
ferrier2019
Phase identification used powder diffraction and the ICDD database; no specimen-specific unit-cell refinement, water-content assay, quantitative phase fraction or manganese mass balance is supplied. Solid-medium debris was recovered using approximately 70 degrees C water, washed twice and dried for a week; the liquid diffraction sample was also dried. Hydration in the living culture was not measured. The source-assigned mineral identity is retained without claiming independent crystallographic re-identification of each precipitate or a quantified transformation yield.
Partial
Source:
ferrier2019
No killed-biomass, cell-free-metabolite or acid-matched series establishes the necessity of living cells, oxalate specifically or a quantitative fungal enhancement. The liquid-product calcium oxalate assignment also conflicts: Figure 8 names monohydrate whewellite, while the corresponding results call it calcium oxalate dihydrate. That unresolved co-product distinction is not silently corrected and does not by itself refute the stated manganese-phase assignment. Separate COG_MN12 fragment-colonization experiments and the delta-oafA comparison are not treated as direct lindbergite confirmation or a demonstrated gene-level mechanism.
Context_only
Source:
farkas2020
This separate A. niger CBS 140837 experiment on synthetic hausmannite reports both falottaite and a product called lindbergite. However, Table 2 assigns its manganese oxalate dihydrate an orthorhombic cell, conflicting with the monoclinic lindbergite identity in the authoritative handbook. The name alone is therefore not accepted as a second verified lindbergite-forming mechanism. Its manganese and arsenic partition measurements are not phase-specific lindbergite yields. If a separate falottaite record uses this experiment, that is shared-study coverage of a distinct phase, not additional experimental replication for lindbergite.
Context_only
Source:
lindbergite_handbook
The mineral authority establishes the monoclinic C2/c identity boundary. It does not authenticate the phase of the experimental fungal precipitates; those remain source-assigned from diffraction.
Context_only
Source:
ncbi_niger
The authority verifies the current species name and identifier. Species membership alone does not establish the mineral-forming trait.
Context_only
Source:
atcc1015
The catalogue confirms the A. niger ATCC 1015 strain designation. It does not independently authenticate the culture used in the paper.
Lindbergite-assigned formation during fungal culture with synthetic sodium birnessite
biomineralization
Microbial
Associated Organisms:
Serpula himantioides (NCBITaxon:80602)
Laboratory cultures reported as Serpula himantioides produced recovered crystals assigned to manganese oxalate dihydrate, explicitly called lindbergite, during growth on synthetic sodium-birnessite medium. The authors propose oxide solubilization followed by oxalate precipitation. The evidence supports culture-associated phase formation; it does not isolate an enzyme pathway, establish a quantitative manganese recovery yield or demonstrate industrial deployment.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Sodium birnessite prepared by freeze-drying synthetic Na-buserite was incorporated at 0.5% (w/v) into 20 cm3 malt extract agar in 90 mm plates. A sterile 84 mm cellophane membrane separated the colony from the agar. A 5 mm mycelial disc from the leading edge of a colony maintained for at least 14 days inoculated each plate; incubation was at 25 degrees C in the dark, with at least three replicate plates. The organism was supplied by N. White at the University of Abertay; no culture accession or sequence is given. Diffraction samples were harvested at 5 and 23 days. Table 3 instead reports surface pH beneath S. himantioides colonies at 25 days: 2.93 on birnessite medium versus an initial value of 7.26. Those six surface measurements do not establish pH at either diffraction harvest.
Sodium birnessite prepared by freeze-drying synthetic Na-buserite was incorporated at 0.5% (w/v) into 20 cm3 malt extract agar in 90 mm plates. A sterile 84 mm cellophane membrane separated the colony from the agar. A 5 mm mycelial disc from the leading edge of a colony maintained for at least 14 days inoculated each plate; incubation was at 25 degrees C in the dark, with at least three replicate plates. The organism was supplied by N. White at the University of Abertay; no culture accession or sequence is given. Diffraction samples were harvested at 5 and 23 days. Table 3 instead reports surface pH beneath S. himantioides colonies at 25 days: 2.93 on birnessite medium versus an initial value of 7.26. Those six surface measurements do not establish pH at either diffraction harvest.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
wei2012
Figure 4 on printed page 1748 compares recovered crystals from birnessite cultures at 5 and 23 days. Its caption identifies a mixture of manganese oxalate trihydrate and dihydrate at day 5, and only the dihydrate at day 23, using reference patterns 012-0663 and 025-0544 respectively. The dihydrate is expressly called lindbergite. Figure 2K-L shows corresponding recovered crystal morphologies; morphology alone does not establish hydration or polymorph. Typical diffraction patterns are from at least three determinations, without clear separation of biological replication from repeated analysis. No unit-cell refinement, water-content assay, quantitative phase fraction or isolated lindbergite mass is supplied.
Partial
Source:
wei2012
The purification methods on printed page 1751 homogenize the agar with water at 80 degrees C and dry the crystals at least overnight in a vacuum desiccator before microscopy and diffraction. Neither wet in-culture diffraction nor a matched preparation/drying series is reported. Consequently the two recovered patterns do not isolate a live-culture trihydrate-to-dihydrate conversion from possible sample-preparation effects. The unnamed 2012 trihydrate is not retrospectively assigned to falottaite here. The assignment also does not extend to every organism or oxide tested in this paper.
Partial
Source:
wei2012
Figure 5 and the abiotic methods compare 50 microlitre additions of 0.5 M oxalic acid, citric acid or HCl to 5 mm wells in oxide-amended agar. Both organic acids produced birnessite-clearing haloes; HCl produced no significant halo in the reported test. These separate chemical assays support a possible metabolite-mediated contribution, but are not pH-matched fungal controls and do not report lindbergite identification in their products. No directly measured fungal oxalate concentration, killed-biomass comparison or time-matched uninoculated diffraction series isolates microbial necessity or an exclusive cause.
Partial
Source:
wei2012
Figure 2I provides an abiotic birnessite morphology comparison, while Tables 1-2 use no-oxide growth controls. Those controls do not supply a phase-specific conversion denominator. Clearing and colour loss, growth-rate ratios and biomass tolerance indices are not dissolved manganese mass balances or product recovery percentages. The 23-day growth and microscopy observations and the 25-day pH and clearing statements are retained as separate sampling descriptions. Figure 6 is a conceptual model, including speculative metal sorption, rather than a measured lindbergite sequestration or redox pathway.
Context_only
Source:
ncbi_himantioides
The authority resolves Serpula himantioides to species TaxID 80602. This does not authenticate the unaccessioned experimental isolate, resolve a phylogenetic lineage within that name, or establish a species-wide mineral-forming phenotype.
Sources & References
-
ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. Lindbergite row, PDF page 126; introductory definitions and distribution terms.
https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-11) -
lindbergite_handbook: Mineralogical Society of America, Handbook of Mineralogy. Lindbergite, one-page entry revised 2/8/2021; formula, crystal data and references to the original mineral description.
https://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/Lindbergite.pdf (accessed 2026-10-11) -
ferrier2019: Ferrier et al. (2019). Colonization, penetration and transformation of manganese oxide nodules by Aspergillus niger. Environmental Microbiology 21(5):1821-1832. Complete main article, Figures 1-8, Table 1 and Experimental procedures; Dundee publisher-version PDF and full JATS.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14591 (accessed 2026-10-11) -
farkas2020: Farkas et al. (2020). Aspergillus niger Decreases Bioavailability of Arsenic(V) via Biotransformation of Manganese Oxide into Biogenic Oxalate Minerals. Journal of Fungi 6(4):270. Complete main article, especially Sections 2.2-2.5 and 3.5, Figure 6 and Table 2; related phase assignment with a crystallographic conflict.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jof6040270 (accessed 2026-10-11) -
ncbi_niger: NCBI Taxonomy 5061. Aspergillus niger, current species node.
https://api.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/v2/taxonomy/taxon/5061/dataset_report (accessed 2026-10-11) -
atcc1015: ATCC 1015. Aspergillus niger strain catalogue entry.
https://www.atcc.org/products/1015 (accessed 2026-10-11) -
wei2012: Wei, Hillier and Gadd (2012). Biotransformation of manganese oxides by fungi: solubilization and production of manganese oxalate biominerals. Environmental Microbiology 14(7). Complete nine-page primary PDF, printed pages 1744-1752; Figures 1-6, Tables 1-3 and Experimental procedures. Publisher and bibliographic metadata instead end at 1753.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2012.02776.x (accessed 2026-10-12) -
ncbi_himantioides: NCBI Taxonomy 80602. Serpula himantioides, current species node.
https://api.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/v2/taxonomy/taxon/Serpula%20himantioides/dataset_report (accessed 2026-10-12)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-11T22:59:52Z |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | CREATE | Added lindbergite identity and source-assigned fungal formation from mixed nodule powder, retaining protocol, hydration and yield limits and the distinct orthorhombic assignment in a related study. |
2026-10-12T00:15:41Z |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | EDIT | Added the separate Wei2012 Serpula himantioides culture arm with source-assigned lindbergite, explicit hot-water and drying limitations, phase-mixture and control boundaries, preserving all prior claims. |
Record source: data/records/lindbergite.yaml