Mineral Replacement Reactions in Naturally Occurring Hydrated Uranyl Phosphates from the Tarabau Deposit: Examples in the Eu-Ba Uranyl Phosphate System
Mineral replacement reactions in naturally occurring hydrated uranyl phosphates from the Tarabau deposit: Examples in the eu-Ba uranyl phosphate system Andre Jarge Pinto a,*, Mario A. Gon<;alves a, Catia Prazeres b, Jose Manuel Astilleros c,d, Maria Joao Batista b • Department afGeology and CREMINERjIARSys, FacultyafSc iences, University of Lisbon, Ed, (6, 1759-016 Lisbon, Portugal b LNEG, National Laboratory for Energy and Geology,Bairro do Zambuja� Ap, 7586,2611-901 Amadora, Portugal c Department o!Crystallography and Mineralogy,Faculty a[Geological Sciences, UniversityComplutense af Madrid, Cl Jose Antonio Novais2, Madrid 28040, Spain d Institute ofGeosciences (UCM-CSIC), Cl Jose Antonio Novais2, Madrid 28040, Spain ABSTRACT Uranyl phosphates are a mineral group which include a wide range of different species, each containing spe cific cations within the hydrated interlayer, and often display a geochemicaljmineralogical relationship with Fe(III) oxy-hydroxides. The environmental relevance of these V-phases arises from their low solubility at most surface and groundwater conditions, where they can ultimately control aqueous V levels. In the present work, samples of naturally occurring uranyl phosphates from the Tarabau site, included in the Nisa deposit, located in central-eastern Portugal, are studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron Micro probe (EMP) and Scanning Electron Microscopy, with the purpose of i) identifying uranyl phosphate mineral Keywords: paragenesis, ii) assessing chemical homogeneity and stoichiometry of the most relevant phases and iii) unra Uranyl phosphate veling possible textural features of mineral reequilibration processes. XRD studies revealed that the analyzed Mineral replacement samples comprehend metatorbernite-like structures, consistent withCu(V02h(P04h ·8H20 formula.
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