Wheatleyite mineral
Wheatleyite is the sodium-copper oxalate dihydrate mineral Na2Cu(C2O4)2(H2O)2, approved as IMA 1984-040. It is distinct from moolooite, other copper oxalates, elemental copper and the mixed weathered ore used in the experiment below. A laboratory product was assigned to wheatleyite by powder diffraction; this does not establish a phase-pure recovered product or a natural ore deposit. No constituent criticality designation is inherited.
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)
Transient wheatleyite assignment during fungal culture on weathered copper ore
biomineralization
Microbial
Associated Organisms:
Aspergillus niger (NCBITaxon:5061)
The source assigned wheatleyite in mixed solids on malachite-bearing weathered ore after five days of Aspergillus niger Ch4/07 culture. The corresponding six-day pattern no longer displayed the assigned wheatleyite peaks, while moolooite remained. This supports transient culture-associated occurrence, not a quantified conversion pathway, complete dissolution, exclusive fungal causation or isolated copper recovery. The proposed reactants are fungal oxalate, substrate-derived copper and sodium supplied by the nutrient medium.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Ch4/07 was isolated from damaged Proconesos marble at Chersonesos, Crimea; the paper's ITS accession maps to KF768341.1 and species NCBITaxon:5061, not a strain-specific TaxID. Approximately 5 by 5 mm fragments of secondary copper-bearing phases coating weathered chalcopyrite-bearing ore from Voronov Bor were submerged in 15 mL liquid Czapek-Dox medium in Petri dishes. The medium contained, in g/L, NaNO3 2.0, KH2PO4 1.0, MgSO4.7H2O 0.5, KCl 0.5, FeSO4.7H2O 0.01 and glucose 30.0, with initial pH 5.5. Conidia from a ten-day solid-medium culture were used; cultivation lasted five to six days at 20-25 degrees C in triplicate. Inoculum density, fragment sterilization and a numerical pH trajectory are not reported. The wheatleyite-bearing pattern specifically concerns malachite-bearing surfaces, not pure chalcopyrite or every tested ferruginous/azurite substrate. Powder diffraction used Cu K-alpha radiation and the ICDD PDF-2 2016 database. Matched uninoculated, killed-cell and cell-free-metabolite controls are not specified.
Ch4/07 was isolated from damaged Proconesos marble at Chersonesos, Crimea; the paper's ITS accession maps to KF768341.1 and species NCBITaxon:5061, not a strain-specific TaxID. Approximately 5 by 5 mm fragments of secondary copper-bearing phases coating weathered chalcopyrite-bearing ore from Voronov Bor were submerged in 15 mL liquid Czapek-Dox medium in Petri dishes. The medium contained, in g/L, NaNO3 2.0, KH2PO4 1.0, MgSO4.7H2O 0.5, KCl 0.5, FeSO4.7H2O 0.01 and glucose 30.0, with initial pH 5.5. Conidia from a ten-day solid-medium culture were used; cultivation lasted five to six days at 20-25 degrees C in triplicate. Inoculum density, fragment sterilization and a numerical pH trajectory are not reported. The wheatleyite-bearing pattern specifically concerns malachite-bearing surfaces, not pure chalcopyrite or every tested ferruginous/azurite substrate. Powder diffraction used Cu K-alpha radiation and the ICDD PDF-2 2016 database. Matched uninoculated, killed-cell and cell-free-metabolite controls are not specified.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
frank2021
Results on in-vitro copper oxalates, Figure 5c and its caption identify wheatleyite together with moolooite after five days. Several labelled wheatleyite reflections distinguish this phase assignment from morphology or elemental co-occurrence alone. Figure 6c-d assigns acicular wheatleyite crystals on malachite, whereas the adjacent spherulites are moolooite. Neither mixed diffraction nor these images quantifies phase purity or product mass.
Partial
Source:
frank2021
Figure 5b is the six-day pattern, which lacks the wheatleyite labels present in Figure 5c; the Results describe disappearance. No detection limit, quantitative phase fraction, dissolved wheatleyite inventory or tracked individual-crystal series is supplied. This does not demonstrate complete removal or conversion of wheatleyite into moolooite. The Discussion invokes water solubility and medium composition, but does not independently measure a phase-specific dissolution rate or causal sodium/oxalate dose response.
Partial
Source:
frank2021
Materials and methods and the Discussion support fungal culture association and proposed oxalate-mediated precipitation. Direct oxalate measurements and matched controls isolating metabolism from extracellular chemistry are absent. Figure 5a,d and the field lichen observations concern moolooite, not natural wheatleyite in those thalli. Iron-related morphology interpretations likewise concern moolooite and are not transferred. Laboratory mineral formation is not an industrial deployment or a recovered-metal yield.
Context_only
Source:
frank2021_si
Tables S1-S2 summarize previous natural and experimental copper oxalates, including wheatleyite, while Table S3 lists field microorganisms. These tables do not add a second verified experiment for this record or establish a causal wheatleyite-forming role for every organism listed. The present assay is the same study already curated under moolooite, not independent replication.
Sources & References
-
ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC, The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. Wheatleyite row, PDF page 234; A, 1984-040 and Na2Cu(C2O4)2(H2O)2.
https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-14) -
handbook_wheatleyite: Handbook of Mineralogy. Wheatleyite, version 1, 2001-2005. Formula, triclinic identity, powder pattern and water solubility.
https://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/wheatleyite.pdf (accessed 2026-10-14) -
frank2021: Frank-Kamenetskaya et al. (2021). Copper oxalate formation by lichens and fungi. Scientific Reports 11:24239. Complete nine-page article, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion and Figures 1-6. DOI 10.1038/s41598-021-03600-5. Same experiment as the moolooite record.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03600-5 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
frank2021_si: Frank-Kamenetskaya et al. (2021), original supplementary DOCX, Tables S1-S3 and references. Background surveys, not independent experimental replication of the main article.
https://media.springernature.com/original/springer-static/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-021-03600-5/MediaObjects/41598_2021_3600_MOESM1_ESM.docx (accessed 2026-10-14) -
ncbi_niger: NCBI Taxonomy 5061, Aspergillus niger, species; current authority XML.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=5061 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
genbank_ch407: GenBank KF768341.1, Aspergillus niger strain Ch 4/07 ribosomal and ITS sequence, 598 bases; source reports grecian marble and taxon 5061. This sequence does not independently authenticate the culture used.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/KF768341.1 (accessed 2026-10-14)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-14T20:48:56.868053+00:00 |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | CREATE | Added authority-grounded wheatleyite identity and transient fungal-culture phase assignment, retaining day-five/day-six observations, mixed solids, unavailable controls and the shared moolooite experiment lineage. |
Record source: data/records/wheatleyite.yaml