Tiberiobardiite, Cu9Al(SiO3OH)2(OH)12(H2O)6(SO4)1.5·10H2O, a new mineral related to chalcophyllite from the cretaio Cu prospect, massa marittima, grosseto (Tuscany, Italy): Occurrence and crystal structure

The new mineral species tiberiobardiite, ideally Cu9Al(SiO3OH)2(OH)12(H2O)6(SO4)1.5·10H2O, has been discovered in the Cretaio Cu prospect, Massa Marittima, Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy, as very rare, light green, vitreous, tabular 0001, pseudo-hexagonal crystals, up to 200 µm in size and 5 µm in thickness, associated with brochantite. Electron microprobe analysis gave (in wt %, average of 5 spot analyses): SO3 10.37, P2O5 3.41, As2O5 0.05, SiO2 8.13, Al2O3 5.54, Fe2O3 0.74, CuO 62.05, and ZnO 0.03, for a total of 90.32. Based on an idealized O content of 42 atoms per formula unit, assuming the presence of 16 H2O groups and 13.5 cations (without H), the empirical formula of tiberiobardiite is (Cu8.69Al0.21Fe0.10)Σ9.00Al1.00(Si1.51P0.54)Σ2.05S1.44O12.53(OH)13.47·16H2O. The main diffraction lines, corresponding to multiple hkl indices, are [d in Å (relative visual intensity)]: 9.4 (s), 4.67 (s), 2.576 (m), 2.330 (m), and 2.041 (mw). The crystal structure study revealed tiberiobardiite to be trigonal, space group R 3, with unit-cell parameters a = 10.6860(4), c = 28.3239(10) Å, V = 2801.0(2) Å3, and Z = 3. The crystal structure was refined to a final R1 = 0.060 for 1747 reflections with Fo > 4σ (Fo) and 99 refined parameters. Tiberiobardiite is the Si-analogue of chalcophyllite, with Si4+ replacing As5+ through the coupled substitution As5+ + O2− = Si4+ + (OH)−. The name tiberiobardiite honors Tiberio Bardi (b. 1960) for his contribution to the study of the mineralogy of Tuscany.