Khinite is a rare

tellurate In chemistry tellurate is a compound containing an oxyanion of tellurium where tellurium has an oxidation number of +6. In the naming of inorganic compounds it is a suffix that indicates a polyatomic anion with a central tellurium atom.

mineral with the formula Pb²⁺ Cu²⁺₃ Te O₆( O H)₂ It crystallizes in the

orthorhombic system In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a r ...

and has a bottle-green colour. It is often found as dipyramidal, curved or corroded crystals no more than 0.15 mm in size. The tetragonal

dimorph In materials science, polymorphism describes the existence of a solid material in more than one form or crystal structure. Polymorphism is a form of isomerism. Any crystalline material can exhibit the phenomenon. Allotropy refers to polymorphism ...

of khinite is called parakhinite.

Occurrence and name

Both khinite and parakhinite were first identified in 1978 in the Old Guard Mine (Royal Guard Mine), Tombstone District,

Cochise County Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city is ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, US They were named after Ba-Saw Khin, a Burmese-American mineralogist. They are often found together with

tenorite Tenorite is a copper oxide mineral with the chemical formula CuO. Occurrence Tenorite occurs in the weathered or oxidized zone associated with deeper primary copper sulfide orebodies. Tenorite commonly occurs with chrysocolla and the copper car ...

quetzalcoatlite Quetzalcoatlite is a rare tellurium oxysalt mineral with the formula Zn6Cu3(TeO6)2(OH)6 · AgxPbyClx+2y. It also contains large amounts of silver- and lead(II)chloride with the formula Agx Pby Clx+2y (x+y≤2). It has a Mohs hardness of 3 and it ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

, dugganite,

chrysocolla Chrysocolla ( ) is a hydrated copper phyllosilicate mineral and mineraloid with formula (x<1) or . The structure of the mineral has been questioned, as a 2006 spectrographic study suggest material identified as ...

chlorargyrite Chlorargyrite is the mineral form of silver chloride (AgCl). Chlorargyrite occurs as a secondary mineral phase in the oxidation of silver mineral deposits. It crystallizes in the isometric - hexoctahedral crystal class. Typically massive to colum ...

bromargyrite Bromyrite or bromargyrite is a natural mineral form of silver bromide found mainly in Mexico and Chile. Hardness is 1.5 to 2. Related are chlorargyrite and iodyrite. It was first described in 1859 for an occurrence in Plateros, Zacatecas, Mexi ...

xocomecatlite Xocomecatlite is a rare tellurate mineral with formula: Cu3(TeO4)(OH)4. It is an orthorhombic mineral which occurs as aggregates or spherules of green needlelike crystals. It was first described in 1975 for an occurrence in the Oriental mine near ...

, and

tlapallite Tlapallite is a rare and complex tellurate mineral with the chemical formula . It has a Moh's hardness of 3 and it is green in colour. It was named after the Nahua word "Tlalpalli", which translates to paint, referring to the paint-like habit of ...

. Khinite and parakhinite are found in multiple mines across

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and the USA.

Parakhinite

Parakhinite crystallizes in the tetragonal system. Khinite and parakhinite are also called khinite-4O and khinite-3T, respectively. Khinite and parakhinite are identical in colour and many other properties, like reactivity. They do differ in optical properties: Khinite is biaxial (+), while parakhinite is uniaxial (-). They also have different unit cells.

References

{{Selenites, selenates, tellurites, and tellurates Tellurate and selenate minerals Copper(II) minerals Lead minerals Hydroxide minerals Orthorhombic minerals Minerals in space group 70