Image Credit: RRUFF Database Project (Lafuente et al. 2015; RRUFF ID 090024)
Mineral Species
Elyite
Type Locality
No
Composition
Pb4Cu(SO4)O2(OH)4·H2O
Crystal System
Monoclinic
Status at Tsumeb
Confirmed
Abundance
Extremely rare
Distribution
Undetermined
Paragenesis
Supergene
Entry Number
Species; TSNB117
General Notes
Elyite is an extremely rare mineral at Tsumeb, but a very distinctive one, by virtue of its colour. It was first described at Tsumeb by Keller (1984) who noted that elyite is associated with scaly crystals of hydrocerussite and cautioned that it could possibly be confused with o’danielite or johillerite.
Gebhard (1999) reported that aggregates of sub-mm crystals were found c. 1982 but provided no information on where they occurred.
A specimen in the Pinch Collection now at Harvard University (MGMH 2020.7.2053) consists of violet-coloured mats of anastomosing acicular crystals on a massive sulphide matrix. This specimen was originally in the collection of TCL mineralogist John Innes and probably collected by him, although no information concerning its location in the mine has been preserved. It bears the Gartrell number 11320 and Nickel (c. 1993; Catalogue of the John Innes Collection, unpublished) described the specimen as
"A sulphidic specimen with some patches of violet elyite (XRD A10510 [CSIRO, Perth]) fibres (up to 1 mm) on two surfaces. Some round, pale green patches (up to 2 mm) of chalky duftite."
Associated Minerals
duftite (?); hydrocerussite; surite (?)
