Szklaryite


Szklaryite is an extremely rare mineral with the formula Al6BAs33+O15. It is essentially vacant, arsenic-dominant member of dumortierite supergroup, giving a name of szklaryite group. It is one of three quite recently found minerals of this group, the other two being nioboholtite and titanoholtite, all coming from the Szklary village near Ząbkowice Śląskie in Poland. They occur in a unique pegmatite of probable anatectic origin.

Occurrence and association

Szklaryite was detected as a tiny patch ca. 2 μm in size, in arsenic- and antimony-bearing dumortierite. Such a small size precluded determination of many of its properties. Szklaryite is associated with a wide variety of minerals including: nioboholtite, titanoholtite, fersmite, holtite, alluaudite, native antimony, manganese-bearing minerals of the apatite group, native arsenic, beusite, native bismuth, cheralite, chrysoberyl, columbite-, columbite-, ernienickelite, native gold, gorceixite, hollandite, microcline, mitridatite, monazite-, muscovite, natrophilite, nontronite, various representatives of the betafite, microlite and pyrochlore groups; paradocrasite, phosphohedyphane, plumbogummite, pollucite, purpurite, quartz, ranciéite, romanèchite, saponite, spessartine, stibarsen, stibiocolumbite, stibiotantalite, tantalite-, thorutite, uraninite, xenotime-, and zircon.