Otavite is a rare
cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...
carbonate mineral
Carbonate minerals are those minerals containing the carbonate ion, .
Carbonate divisions Anhydrous carbonates
*Calcite group: trigonal
** Calcite CaCO3
** Gaspéite (Ni,Mg,Fe2+)CO3
** Magnesite MgCO3
** Otavite CdCO3
**Rhodochrosite MnCO3
** ...
with the formula
Cd C O3. Otavite crystallizes in the
trigonal
In crystallography, the hexagonal crystal family is one of the six crystal families, which includes two crystal systems (hexagonal and trigonal) and two lattice systems (hexagonal and rhombohedral). While commonly confused, the trigonal crystal ...
system and forms encrustations and small scalenohedral crystals that have a pearly to
adamantine luster. The color is white to reddish to yellow brown. Its
Mohs hardness
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 t ...
is 3.5 to 4 and the
specific gravity
Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water at its densest ...
is 5.04. Associated minerals include
azurite
Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a basic carb ...
,
calcite,
malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...
, and
smithsonite
Smithsonite, also known as zinc spar, is the mineral form of zinc carbonate ( Zn CO3). Historically, smithsonite was identified with hemimorphite before it was realized that they were two different minerals. The two minerals are very similar in a ...
.
It was first described in 1906 from the
Tsumeb
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, motto = ''Glück Auf'' (German for ''Good luck'')
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district near Otavi,
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
.
References
Mindat locality dataWebmineral{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029131216/http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/carbonat/otavite/otavite.htm , date=2005-10-29
Cadmium minerals
Carbonate minerals
Calcite group
Trigonal minerals
Minerals in space group 167
Minerals described in 1906