Zincobriartite mineral
Zincobriartite is the natural copper-zinc-germanium sulfide mineral Cu2ZnGeS4, listed as approved IMA 2015-094 in the September 2026 IMA-CNMNC list. The original announcement in CNMNC Newsletter 29, published in February 2016, places it among proposals approved in January 2016 and describes it as the zinc analogue of briartite from the Kipushi mine, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The proposal identifier's 2015 prefix is retained without treating it as the publication or approval month. The announcement reports the historical formula Cu2(Zn,Fe)(Ge,Ga)S4 and type material at the Natural History Museum, London, catalogue BM 1967,271. That broader formula is distinguished from the current listed endmember and is not a measured composition of every specimen. Newsletter 90, published in April 2026, still lists zincobriartite among approved minerals lacking a published full description. The announcement therefore supports bounded identity and provenance, not unavailable analytical methods, specimen assays or independently reproducible structure refinement. Historical briartite grains are not automatically reassigned to this species. No extraction mechanism, recovery yield or inherited constituent-element criticality is asserted.
Sources & References
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ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026; definitions on PDF page 1 and Zincobriartite row on PDF page 241.
https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-12) -
mcdonald2016_approval: McDonald AM, Stanley CJ, Ross KC and Nestola F (2016). Zincobriartite, IMA 2015-094, page 203 of CNMNC Newsletter 29, in Hålenius U, Hatert F, Pasero M and Mills SJ, New minerals and nomenclature modifications approved in 2015 and 2016. Mineralogical Magazine 80(1):199-205. Original notice on page 203, January 2016 approval heading on page 202, scope on page 199. DOI 10.1180/minmag.2016.080.080.
https://doi.org/10.1180/minmag.2016.080.080 (accessed 2026-10-12) -
cnmnc90_2026: Bosi F, Hatert F, Pasero M and Mills SJ (2026). IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC) - Newsletter 90. European Journal of Mineralogy 38:231-235, published 28 April 2026. Section 3, Not yet published new minerals, pages 233-234; Zincobriartite entry on page 234. DOI 10.5194/ejm-38-231-2026.
https://ejm.copernicus.org/articles/38/231/2026/ (accessed 2026-10-12)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-12T04:40:41Z |
Codex (GPT-6; codex) | create | Added the separately approved mineral identity with historical and current formula boundaries, exact approval chronology and the dated CNMNC notice that its full description remains unpublished. |
Record source: data/records/zincobriartite.yaml