Ardaite is a very rare

sulfosalt mineral Sulfosalt minerals are sulfide minerals with the general formula , where *A represents a metal such as copper, lead, silver, iron, and rarely mercury (element), mercury, zinc, vanadium *B usually represents semi-metal such as arsenic, antimony, b ...

with chemical formula Pb₁₉Sb₁₃S₃₅Cl₇ in the

monoclinic In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic s ...

crystal system In crystallography, a crystal system is a set of point groups (a group of geometric symmetries with at least one fixed point). A lattice system is a set of Bravais lattices. Space groups are classified into crystal systems according to their po ...

, named after the

Arda River Arda or ARDA may refer to: Places *Arda (Maritsa), a river in Bulgaria and Greece *Arda (Italy), a river in Italy *Arda (Douro), a river in Portugal *Arda, Bulgaria, a village in southern Bulgaria *Arda, County Fermanagh, a List of townlands in Co ...

, which passes through the type locality. It was discovered in 1978 and approved by the

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. Th ...

in 1980. It was the second well-defined natural chlorosulfosalt, after dadsonite. Greenish gray or bluish green in color, its luster is metallic. Ardaite occurs as 50 µm fine-grained aggregates of acicular crystals associated with

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cryst ...

, pyrostilpnite,

anglesite Anglesite is a lead sulfate mineral with the chemical formula PbSO4. It occurs as an oxidation product of primary lead sulfide ore, galena. Anglesite occurs as prismatic orthorhombic crystals and earthy masses, and is isomorphous with barite and ...

, nadorite, and

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

-bearing robinsonite and

semseyite Semseyite is a rarely occurring sulfosalt mineral and is part of the class of lead antimony sulfides. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system with the chemical composition Pb9Sb8S21. The mineral forms dark gray to black aggregates. Etymology ...

, in the Madjarovo polymetallic ore deposit in Bulgaria. Ardaite has a hardness of 2.5 to 3 on

Mohs scale The Mohs scale of mineral hardness () is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material. The scale was introduced in 1812 by th ...

and a density of approximately 6.44. The type locality is the

Madjarovo Madzharovo ( , formerly Dupnitsa) is a small Bulgarian town in the Eastern Rhodopes, part of Haskovo Province, situated on the banks of the river Arda. It has only 590 population, as of December 2009,Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; bg, Родопи, ; el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodopi''; tr, Rodoplar) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in ...

. Later its occurrence was proved in the Gruvåsen deposit, near

Filipstad Filipstad is a locality and the seat of Filipstad Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 10,644 inhabitants in 2019. Filipstad was granted city privileges in 1611 by Charles IX of Sweden, who named it after his son Duke Carl Philip (1601&n ...

Bergslagen Bergslagen is a historical, cultural, and linguistic region located north of Lake Mälaren in northern Svealand, Sweden, traditionally known as a mining district. In Bergslagen, the mining and metallurgic industries have been important since th ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

References

External links

* {{wiktionary Sulfosalt minerals Lead minerals Monoclinic minerals Antimony minerals

See also

References

External links