New silver‑rich mineral found in Chinese ore deposit

A new Ag–Sb–Te sulfosalt mineral called fengruiite has been discovered at the Haopinggou Ag–Pb–Zn–Au deposit in eastern Qinling, China. The species is composed of two subunits, and, and was reported by Yongfei Tian, Guowu Li, Ningyue Sun, Min Liu, Jingwen Mao, Yunpeng Dong, Peng Liu, Wei Jian, Wei Yao, Xiuquan Wang, and Huishou Ye in the European Journal of Mineralogy ¹.

The study shows that tellurium plays a key role in trapping and concentrating silver within hot mineral‑forming fluids. This insight helps explain how silver-rich deposits form in nature.

In a separate experiment, Christian Ronny Singer, Harald Behrens, Ingo Horn, Martin Oeser, Stefan Weyer, and François Holtz developed a novel setup to investigate element transport and isotope fractionation of lithium (Li) and boron (B) between two melt reservoirs connected only via a fluid phase. Their work, published in the same journal, found that both Li and B were transported through the fluid but at low rates. It also demonstrated that Li isotopes fractionate during this process, with the heavier ⁷Li preferentially enriched in the fluid. ¹

Additionally, the IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification released Newsletter 92, detailing recent updates in mineral classification. The newsletter was authored by Ferdinando Bosi, Frédéric Hatert, Marco Pasero, and Stuart J. Mills and appeared in the European Journal of Mineralogy ¹.