GROUTITE, HMNO2, A NEW MINERAL OF THE DIASPORE-GOETHITE GROUP JouN W. GnuNnn, (Jniaer sity oJ M innesota, M inneapolis, M innesota. Arsrnacr Groutite, HMnO2 is a new member of the diaspore-goethite group. It resembles man- ganite in general appearance as in luster, color, streak, hardness and specific gravity. Its structure, crystal forms and habits, cleavage and pleochroism are different. It occurs on the Cuyuna range, Minnesota, associated with irori ores. INrnooucrroN Tn 1942the writer was presentedwith a small group of beautiful black crystals of a manganesemineral which had been thought to be manganite. The crystal habit of the mineral was so different, however, that an x-ray powder diagram was prepared which gave a pattern entirely difierent from any other known manganesemineral. A search for more material revealed that the mineral is not rare in the iron mines of the Cuyuna range of Minnesota. Somevery fine specimenswere presentedto the writ- er by Mr. GeorgeChamberlin, chief mining engineerof Pickands, Mather and Company at Crosby, Minn. The original sample examined was ob- tained from Mr. Harvey J. Hakala, mining engineer of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. It came from the Sagamoreopen pit west of Ironton on the Cuyuna range. Dr. R. B. Ellestad made the analysis. To all thesemen the writer is greatly indebted. Grants by the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota are gratefully acknowledged. CnvsraltocRAPHY Very beautiful specimens of hundreds of crystals, up to 5 mm. in greatest dimensions were available. Examination shows that the vast majority of the crystals are wedge or lens-shapedand that their faces are rounded and curved in a way that makes their measurementsalmost im- possible. They have many markings on them similar to those of Fig. 3 which representsa sketch of what is visible of most crystals. The vertical [001]zone is always striated parallel to the c axis. The only usablevertical forms were {110} and {120}, and measurementson them are accurateto only the nearestdegree. norm {OtO} occursas very narrow facesbut the brachypinacoidal cleavageis so perfect that reflections from it were very valuable. Another form in the vertical zone, probably present, is [ 130]. Form {100} was not observedbut cleavageparallel to it may be seen, though interrupted by the perfect cleaving parallel to {010}. The read- oJ4+ GROUTITE, A NEW MINERAL 6s5 ings on the forms {111} and {021} are usually fair and accurateto the nearest 10 minutes, though they are commonly smaller than shown in Fig. 2. Form (134) was observed only twice, and then only as one face on a crystal. ft was large and gave good signals. Vicinal and curved facespre- cluded any other measurements.The crystals are attached to the walls of the cavities with the plane of the o and b axesmore or lessnormal to their supports. This occurrenceemphasizes their wedge- and lens-Iike shapes. Frc. 1 Fro.2 Frc. 3 fn recording the crystal elements and forms, the new edition of the Systemof Mineralogy (1) has been followed. AII anglesand other calcula- tions are based on the reliable *ray data below. rf only two circle gonio- metric values had been used, the axial ratio would have been C.440:1: 0.268. Errusrrs Orthorhombicdipyramidal class a:b:c : 0.4262.1i0.2665 pot qo: r o: 0.6248:0.2663 : 1 qri r i pt : 0.4262: 1.60M: I t2tP2: q2: 3.7550 : 2.3463: I Tann 1. FonMsOssrnvEn Form Indices b 010 0000, 90'00' 90"00' 90'00' 0000, n7 110 66 55 90 00 90 00 2305 , 0000' 66 55 t 120 49 33 90 00 90 00 4027 000 49 33 e 021 000 2802 28 02 90 00 90 00 61 58 111 66 55 34 t2 1455 58 53 58 00 77 16 * 134 38 02 1414 1118 8t r7 8107 78 50 Srnucrrrnar, Dera Powder and rotation photographs about the [100] and [001] directions were made. It is planned to make a complete determination of the struc- JOEN W, GRUNER ture at some later date. There is such similarity in the data of groutite, diaspore and particularly goethite, however, that the new mineral must be isostructural with theother two. The size of the unit cell is os:4.56 A, bo:I0.70 A, co:2.95 A. tt i. interesting to observethat the height of the unit cell is 2.85 A, or possibly twice this value, which is the same as Tasrn 2. Pomnn Psoroon.clqor.Gnourrrn, SaCerrOn-n MrNr, Nnat InOnrOU,Mrrr. Unfiltered Fe radiation. Radius of camera 57 3 mm' Indices obtained from rotation photograPhs. No. of No. of line line I 5.36 I 020 19 |.465 I z 4.r7 10+ 110 20 1.M8 I J 3.462 r-2 120 2l 1.435 2 + 2.798 6 130 ZL 1.398 I 5 2.675 6 040 ZJ 1.367 6 2.524 1 02r z+ 1.345 7 2.369 6 25 1.304 .5 8 2.303 .) 140 26 1.286 I 9 2.2rO n 27 1.281 1 10 2.008 I 28 1.267 I l0a 1.959 o41 29 1.258 I II t.932 1 150 30 1.220 1 t2 1.798 .J JI r.212 1 IJ I. /OJ 2 32 1.202 I t4 1.732 I 33 . IJJ 2 1a t-z IJ 1.692 J 34 .134 16 1.603 4 35 .r07 I r7 1 559 0 36 .086 .J 18 1.515 3 37 .077 .5 38 1.068 J 0, 10,o that of pyrolusite, Ba-psilomelane,cryptomelane and manganite (in the Iatter 5.70/D. While those minerals have habits of elongation parallel to [001], groutite crystals are very short in this direction. The lines of the powder photograph are included here (Table 2) because in very fine grained specimensit might be impossible to distinguish groutite from manganite by any other means. Pnvsrcer- PnopBnuBs Cleavageoccurs parallel to {010} and {100}. The former is exceedingly perfect and yields brilliant reflections. The color of the mineral is jet black, and the luster is brilliant submetallic to adamantine. The streak is dark brown like that of manganite. The hardnessmay be slightly essl than that of manganite, the brittleness seemsto be the same.The specific GROUTITE, A NEW MINERAL 657 gravity determined on a gram of handpicked material is 4.144 recalcu- la.tedto 4o C. This determination was made in a fused silica pycnometer. The theoretical density based on the size of the unit cell is 4.172. The optical properties have not been determined except for pleochroism, which is very strong in white light. TAsm 3. Cgrurcar. Aurvsos I I Theoretical mrnus composition residue MnO 78.06 79.97 80.04 80.66 o 8.73 8.94 9.02 9.10 HrO+ 10.14 10.39 10.24 Hro- .04 .04 AlzOr not det. FezOr .02 .02 (Na,K)20 not det. BaO .00 PrOr .33 fnsoluble residue 2.39 Total 99.70 100.00 R. B. Br,r,nsr.qo. anal^tst. Very dark brown to black t0011 Yellowish brown [010] Groutite could be distinguished from manganite by this property srnce the pleochroism of this mineral is weak. Groutite is infusible and loseswater on heating in air at temperatures above 200oC. Heating at 150oC. in air for five days doesnot affect it. Cnpurcar CouposmroN Material for the analyseswas handpicked very carefully. Analysis 1 is from a specimen from the Mahnomen Mine, according to Mr. George Chamberlin who presented it to the writer. The associatedquartz could not be eliminated completely and is recorded as insoluble. Partial analysis 2 is on a sample from the Sagamore Mine, which contains no insoluble residue. Dr. R. B. Ellestad kindly furnished the note* below regarding * Total manganese was determined by potentiometric titration of manganous ion with permanganate, in a neutral pyrophosphate solution, following the method of Lingane and Karplus (Intl. anit Eng. Chem., Analytical Ed. 18, 191, lg45). Excess orygen was deter- mined by solution of the sample in a mixture of sulfuric acid and an excess of standaid sodium arsenite, followed by the titration of the excess arsenite rvith permanganate. This method is described by Kolthofi and Sandell (Textbook of Quantitative Inorganic Analysis, 658 JOEN W, GRUNER analytical procedure. Dr. W. W. Wetzel of Minnesota Mining and Manu- turing Company, St. Paul, Minn., kindly ran a spectrographic analysis for the writer. He reports less than 0.1/6 CaO, about 0.05 MgO, about 0.05 NazO and a trace of Alros.l OccurnpNcn Groutite, as stated in the introduction, has been found in at least three mines of the Cuyuna iron range in Minnesota. There is good reason to believe that it is present as minute crystals in other mines of the dis- trict. Very fine specimenshave beenobtained from the Sagamore,Mangan No. 2, and Mahnomen pits. Since these specimensare very attractive even to the layman, it is probable that a number of them, if not many, are in local collections. The crystals always line vugs and nearly always are associatedwith manganite. The manganite usually is the common variety which forms radiating columnar but compact coatings, occa- sionally one inch thick. The groutite crystals are attached to the tops of the columns approximately with their (100) planes. fn at least one speci- men the manganite columns are elongated parallel to the [100] direction, and the attached groutite crystals have their [100] parallel to that of the manganite. Some crystals seem to show oriented growth on the man- ganite with the plane (100) in common. Since the d6 and &odimensions are very similar this is not surprising.