The Vale das Gatas tungsten mine is situated at the contact between Hercynian granite and Cambrian-Precambrian crystalline schists a few kilometers north of the village of Sabrosa, near Vila Real, in northern Portugal. Wolframite has been the principal product of the mine although several other metals of economic interest are known to occur there. The silver content of the ores was attributed by earlier workers to the presence of tetrahedrite and schapbachite, whilst this work shows matildite, pavonite, acanthite, and argyrodite to be present, together with Ag-bearing galena. The textures and compositions of these phases are described with preliminary results of fluid inclusion studies.

The object of this note is not to give elaborate descriptions of rocksections, but to call attention to tile fact that the old volcano of Nimrud, situated on the west side of lake Van in Armenia, was the centre of eruption of alkali-lavas presenting striking similarities to some of the alkali-rocks of the tlift Valley in East Africa.

To Dr. Felix Oswald, in his book on the geology of Armenia, we owe a detailed description of this ancient volcano, of which the vast crater, now half occupied by a deep lake, is more than five miles across. An interesting series of the lavas from the volcano was collected by Dr. Oswald and was presented by him to the British Museum. On looking over thin slices of these rocks under the microscope, I was at once struck by the surprising resemblance of some of them, with their phenocrysts of anorthoclase and scattered tufts of aegirine and the soda-amphiboles, riebeckite and cossyrite, to rocks in Prof. J. W. Gregory's collection from the Rift Valley which I had described.

The parageneses of opaque minerals in three Assynt rocks are described. A biotite-diorite dyke-rock of Lewisian age is characterized by a primary igneous assemblage of Fe-Ti oxides, pyrrhotine, and pentlandite. Effects of metamorphism are recognized, particularly in the oxidation of ilmenite in a Lewisian epidiorite dyke-rock. Cromaltite contains a primary assemblage of oxide minerals together with a later hydrothermal sulphide assemblage. Evidence from the opaque minerals cannot be reconciled with a theory of limestone assimilation. The correlation of the distribution of Co, Ni, and Cu in the rocks with the opaque minerals present is considered.

The first form of refractometer, in which a reference-scale was substituted for the rotational parts and graduated circles of the more complex instruments, was designed in 1885 by Professor E. Bertrand who at the same time was the first to suggest the employment of a hemisphere of dense glass in place of the prism and cylinder previously used. The original instrument and others on the same principle which have hitherto been constructed do not give satisfactory results, because no attempt has been made to compensate for the curvature of the focal surface of the hemisphere, and the determinations obtained are, therefore, far from trustworthy. In the refractometer described in this paper a corrective lens is placed in the path of the rays emerging from the hemisphere, and the field thus produced is rendered very nearly plane.

The following four papers are a representative subset of the talks that were given during a lively session at the 1989 Winter Meeting of the Mineralogical Society (19 and 20 December), organised by us on behalf of the Metamorphic Studies Group on the theme of ‘Geothermometry and Geobarometry’. The talks at the meeting fell broadly into three groups: those dealing with fundamental problems of obtaining the requisite compositional and thermodynamic data, case studies of the applications of thermometers and barometers, and discussions of the limitations of the approach imposed by kinetic factors.

The first group of talks included contributions by T. J. B. Holland and J. Lieberman (co-authors M. Engi and R. G. Berman) dealing with perhaps the major hurdle in the way of reliable geothermometry and geobarometry: the question of activity-composition relationships for natural minerals. Holland took the examples of the pyroxenes and the plagioclase feldspars and showed, respectively, how Landau theory could be utilised to take account of ordering, and how Darken's quadratic formalism can take account of a structural break.

In re-examining the crystalline rocks of the Malvern Hills, the senior author has had occasion to apply quantitative spectroscopic data for the rarer constituents of hornblendes and micas. The recognition of silver in the spectrograms of biotite led to tentative fire-assays of granitic rocks in bulk-a procedure which revealed the presence also of gold.

The assay results for this preliminary suite of granitic types are given below; values less than 5 grains per ton are returned as 'traces':

The higher values appear to be related to the reddening of the felspars, which is a widespread 'late' pneumatolytic effect; it is conspicuous in the major granite masses and related pegmatites, but somewhat local and 'arterial' in its distribution over rocks of pre granite age. Among the igneous rocks of post-granite age, the intrusive granophyric quartz-diabase ('Ivy Scar' type) shows only feeble reddening; the newer dolerites are unaffected.

This paper is a report on the various features of the crystallogenesis of calcite as shown in specimens collected from iron-ore skarn deposits. Although there are several forms, each showing a variety of habit, a detailed study shows that there is a unified sequence of successive habit substitution. A structural analysis of calcite based on P.B.C. (Periodic Bond Chain) vectors is then considered.

The study of minerals, using X-ray goniomcters in place of optical I instruments, has proceeded far in recent years. It is now a common practice among mineralogists and petrologists to confirm the nature of a given specimen by X-ray methods when there is some doubt about the identification by the older methods. The occurrence of pseudomorphs sometimes leads to misidentifications even in crystals of large size. If the material is cryptoerystalline it may be almost impossible to make an identification by optical methods. In such cases X-ray photographs may be of great assistance.

A Mössbauer investigation has been carried out on garnets from the Ivrea-Verbano zone and the results are compared with those obtained on the same samples by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The problem addressed is the precise structural characterisation of the local environment of iron in garnets with Fe/Ca ratio variable between ∼3.0 and ∼18.0. Ferric iron is octahedrally coordinated and ferrous iron is in the dodecahedral site in all the samples. Mössbauer results are in agreement with those obtained by XAS and show that, at least in the compositional range of the garnets examined (0.1-0.5 calcium atoms p.f.u.), the iron environment is not significantly modified by the larger calcium cations sharing the same dodecahedral site. It is confirmed that the Mössbauer technique is more sensitive than XAS in detecting low percentages of iron, especially when the cation is present in more than one oxidation state and coordination number.

The first occurrence of mpororoite and anthoinite outside the African Continent has been found in an altered skarn from the Kara mine, Tasmania, forming a white powdery mixture of the two minerals pseudomorphing scheelite. The wet chemical analysis of the mixture shows WO3, Al2O3, and H2O to be the essential constituents, proving the non-essential nature of Fe2O3 in mpororoite; the original mpororoite contained high Fe2O3 substituting for Al2O3. The thermal treatment of the mixture at 100°C for 6 hours in air brings about the conversion of mpororoite into anthoinite, which re-hydrates into mpororoite, although the associated anthoinite does not. The source of Al is ascribed to the decomposition of aluminian andradite in the skarn.

57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy has been used to determine the Mg2+-Fe2+ distribution between the two crystallographically inequivalent cation sites in hypersthenes from a stratigraphic tephra sequence of the Taupo Pumice formation, North Island, New Zealand. From these distributions and X-ray fluorescence analytical data, cooling histories were constructed using previously determined Mg2+-Fe2+ equilibrium isotherms for orthopyroxenes. The results showed that this cooling history geothermometer could be used to enable airfall and airflow tephra to be distinguished. In addition, they showed that the cooling rate of the above deposits correlated better with the deposit thickness, than with the distance of the deposit from the source.

A Working quarry, at Loanhead (NS363557) within the Clyde Plateau Carboniferous lavas, is traversed by a tholeiitic Tertiary dyke some 25-30 m wide. Throughout the quarry the lavas are extensively altered and the most prominent secondary minerals are calcite and prehnite. Adjacent to the dyke is an indefinite alteration zone within which garnet has developed in close association with analcime and thomsonite. Contact metamorphism is not apparent. Secondary minerals in the quarried lavas and from the alteration zone have been described by Meikle (1989). The most salient feature of secondary mineral formation central to this paper is that grossular and andradite occur, in situ, in close proximity to the dyke, and only in the amygdales.

The rare nickel telluride mineral melonite is identified from Jaduguda uranium ore, Singhbhum Shear Zone, Bihar, India. Its physical, optical, chemical, and paragenetic characteristics are described. The composition as obtained by EPMA is NiTe1.66Bi0.06 or approximately Ni3(Te,Bi)5. The association of melonite with molybenite in this ore deposit is unusual, since melonite is generally associated with tellurides of gold and silver. This is the first reported occurrence of melonite from India.

Scorodite from Kiura mine, Bungo, Japan, has been known for many years. However, owing to its diversity in crystallographical and optical properties as well as chemical composition from those of other localities there appears to be some doubts as to the identity of the mineral. It has even been suggested to be possibly a new mineral having a composition akin to that of scorodite. Some time ago a number of fine crystals were placed at our disposal by the courtesy of Dr. Kô, in addition to the recent acquisition by our Institute of a few rarely found beautiful druses of the mineral. It will therefore be worth while to describe some of its main features in detail.

Examples of quartz twinned on a face of the primary rhombohedron R are extremely rare. Only three isolated examples have so far been recorded. The first was observed by Q. Sella; but as his crystal could not be measured, owing to its position on the matrix, it is of only slight importance as evidence of this mode of twinning of quartz.

A nomenclature scheme has been set up for the nordite supergroup of minerals, which have the general formula A2BXYZT6O17 and where A = Na; B = Na, Ca; X = Sr, Ca, Ba; Y = REE, Sr; Z = Zn, Fe, Mn, Mg and T = Si. The nordite supergroup includes nordite-(La), nordite-(Ce), ferronordite-(La), ferronordite-(Ce) and manganonordite-(Ce), as well as meieranite which is considered as an unassigned member of the nordite supergroup. In the known nordite-group minerals the Y site is occupied by rare earth elements (REE), while in meieranite the Y site is occupied by Sr. The dominant element on the tetrahedral Z site determines the prefix used in the mineral name. New rootnames must be given to species with a different dominant element on the A, B or X sites. Nordite supergroup minerals are orthorhombic, although nordite-group minerals and meieranite crystallise in the Pcca and P21nb space groups, respectively. The proposed nomenclature scheme for the nordite supergroup has been approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC) of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA). In addition, new chemical and structural investigations were performed on nordite-(Ce) from Illutalik (Igdlutalik), South Greenland, leading to the first crystal structure refinement for nordite-(Ce).

A new beryllophosphate mineral species, loomisite (IMA2022-003), ideally Ba[Be2P2O8]⋅H2O, was found from the Big Chief mine near Keystone, Pennington County, South Dakota, USA. It occurs as divergent sprays of very thin bladed crystals with a tapered termination. Individual crystals are found up to 0.80 × 0.06 × 0.03 mm. Associated minerals include dondoellite, earlshannonite, mitridatite, rockbridgeite, jahnsite-(CaMnFe) and quartz. No twinning or parting is observed macroscopically. Loomisite is murky white in transmitted light, transparent with white streak and silky to vitreous lustre. It is brittle and has a Mohs hardness of 3½–4, with perfect cleavage on {100} and {$\bar{1}$10}. The measured and calculated densities are 3.46(5) and 3.512 g/cm3, respectively. Optically, loomisite is biaxial (+), with α = 1.579(5), β = 1.591(5), γ = 1.606(5) (white light), 2V (meas.) = 82(2)° and 2V (calc.) = 85°. It is non-pleochroic under polarised light, with a very weak (r > v) dispersion. The mineral is insoluble in water or hydrochloric acid. An electron microprobe analysis, along with the BeO content measured with an ICP-MS, yields an empirical formula (based on 9 O apfu) (Ba0.96Ca0.06)Σ1.02[(Be1.96Fe0.06)Σ2.02P1.99O8]⋅H2O, which can be simplified to (Ba,Ca)[(Be,Fe)2P2O8]⋅H2O.

Loomisite is monoclinic, with space group Pn and unit-cell parameters a = 7.6292(18), b = 9.429(2), c = 4.7621(11) Å, β = 91.272(5)°, V= 342.47(14) Å3 and Z = 2. Its crystal structure is characterised by a framework of corner-sharing PO4 and BeO4 tetrahedra. The framework can be considered as built from the stacking of sheets consisting of 4- and 8-membered rings (4.82 nets) along [001] or hexagonal layers (63 nets) along [010]. The extra-framework Ba2+ and H2O are situated in the channels formed by the 8-membered rings. Topologically, loomisite represents the first natural example with the zeolite ABW-type framework, which is adopted by over 100 synthetic compounds with different chemical compositions.