minerals Article Paddlewheelite, a New Uranyl Carbonate from the Jáchymov District, Bohemia, Czech Republic Travis A. Olds 1,* , Jakub Plášil 2, Anthony R. Kampf 3, Fabrice Dal Bo 1 and Peter C. Burns 1,4 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA;
[email protected] (F.D.B);
[email protected] (P.C.B.) 2 Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Na Slovance 1999/2, 18221 Prague 8, Czech Republic;
[email protected] 3 Mineral Sciences Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA;
[email protected] 4 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 10 October 2018; Accepted: 5 November 2018; Published: 7 November 2018 Abstract: Paddlewheelite, MgCa5Cu2[(UO2)(CO3)3]4·33H2O, is a new uranyl carbonate mineral found underground in the Svornost mine, Jáchymov District, Bohemia, Czech Republic, where it occurs as a secondary oxidation product of uraninite. The conditions leading to its crystallization are complex, likely requiring concomitant dissolution of uraninite, calcite, dolomite, chalcopyrite, and andersonite. Paddlewheelite is named after its distinctive structure, which consists of paddle-wheel clusters of uranyl tricarbonate units bound by square pyramidal copper “axles” and a cubic calcium cation “gearbox.” Paddle wheels share edges with calcium polyhedra to form open sheets that are held together solely by hydrogen bonding interactions. The new mineral is monoclinic, Pc, a = 22.052(4), b = 17.118(3), c = 19.354(3) Å, β = 90.474(2)◦, V = 7306(2) Å3 and Z = 4.