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New data for pitticite and a second occurrence of yukonite at Sterling Hill, New Jersey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Pete J. Dunn
Pete J. Dunn*
Affiliation:
Department of Mineral Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20560, USA
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Abstract

Pitticite is re-examined analytically and found to be a gel-like mineral of widely varying composition. Previously reported minor amounts of accessory elements are indeed present in pitticite. The name pitticite has validity only as a generic name for gel-like ferric iron arsenate minerals of varying composition.

Yukonite is reported from the Sterling Hill mine, Ogdensburg, New Jersey, the second occurrence. New data for yukonite suggest the name should be retained.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 46 , Issue 339 , June 1982 , pp. 261 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1982

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Footnotes

EDITOR'S NOTE. The name Pittizit (anglicized to pitticite, probably by J. D. Dana, Syst. Mineral. 3rd edn. 1850, 453) was given by J. F. L. Hausmann (Handb. Mineral. 1813, l, 285) to a mineral from the Christbescherung mine, Freiberg, Saxony, named Eisenpecherz by D. L. G. Karsten (Mineral. Tab. 1808, 66 and 98), analysed by M. H. Klaproth, and more fully described by Karsten and Klaproth (Mag. Ges. naturforsch. Freunde, Berlin, 1808, 191); Klaproth's analysis shows 67~ Fe203, 8~o SO 3, and 25~ H20.

In 1819, F. Stromeyer (Ann. Phys. (Gilbert), 61, 181) examined Eisenpecherz from several localities in Saxony and found As20 5 as a major constituent of all, with varying amounts of SO3; he obtained, through C. S. Weiss, a portion of Klaproth's original specimen, and found it to be identical with his Eisenpecherz specimens (Klaproth's detailed description of his procedure suggests that his analysis was sound; probably the specimen, clearly a large one, was inhomogeneous).

Most mineralogists have followed Stromeyer in redefining Pittizit ( = Eisenpecherz) as a basic iron arsenate with more or less sulphate (e.g.K.C. von Leonhard, Handb. Oryktogn. 1821, 364). F. S. Beudant (Trait~ Mineral. 1832, 2, 484), however, retained Pittizit for the basic sulphate, citing both Klaproth's analysis and one of a synthetic basic iron sulphate by J. J. Berzelius (Ann. Phys. (Gilbert), 1812, 40, 294; AJh. Fis. Kemi, Mineral. 1818, 5, 157) with 15.9~ SO3; Beudant proposed the name sideretine (often misspelt Sideritine) for the arsenate-sulphate, but has found few followers.

C. F. Naumann (Elem. Mineral. 4th edn., 1855, 254) proposed the name glockerite for material from Obergrund, Zuckmantel, analysed by Hochstetter, with 15.2 SO3, 20.7 ~ H20, and includes Berzelius's material here. Berzelius and J. G. Gahn (AJh. Fis. Kemi, Mineral. 1815, 4, 307) noted a yellow basic iron sulphate occurring with botryogen at Fahlun, Sweden, but it was not analysed, and its identification with the synthetic material and with glockerite is speculative.

References

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