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File:Francevillite-mounanaite (Mounana Mine, Franceville, Gabon, Africa) (31205942471).jpg

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Francevillite on mounanaite from Gabon, Africa. (Robert Lauf collection)

A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5100 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.

The vanadate minerals all have one or more vanadate ions (VO4 -3).

Francevillite is a radioactive, hydrous barium uranyl vanadate mineral, Ba(UO2)2(VO4)2·5H2O. It is the barium equivalent of carnotite. The mineral is moderately soft and ranges in color from yellowish to yellowish-brown to greenish-yellow to orangish to reddish.

Francevillite is one of several secondary uranium minerals. It results from the alteration of uraninite (UO2) or other U- or V-bearing minerals. Uranium-bearing minerals are soluble in water and acids. Water percolating through uraniferous rocks will end up having dissolved U compounds. These dissolved compounds precipitate elsewhere as secondary U minerals.

The sample shown above has bright orange francevillite crystals atop dark brown mounanaite (= PbFe2(VO4)2(OH,F)2 - lead iron hydroxy-fluoro-vanadate). This is from the type locality for both minerals.

Locality: Mounana Mine, Franceville, Gabon, Africa

Photo gallery of francevillite:

<a href="http://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=1589" rel="nofollow">www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=1589</a>
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Source Francevillite-mounanaite (Mounana Mine, Franceville, Gabon, Africa)
Author James St. John

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/31205942471 (archive). It was reviewed on 6 December 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

6 December 2019

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current03:11, 6 December 2019Thumbnail for version as of 03:11, 6 December 20191,463 × 1,010 (1.11 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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