Belmonteite, New Arsenate Mineral Found in Italian Mine

The European Journal of Mineralogy (EJM) has published three recent studies that advance our understanding of mineral chemistry and processing. The papers cover the application of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to aragonite mixtures, the role of exsolution textures in vanadium extraction from Bushveld ores, and the discovery of a new arsenate mineral named Belmonteite found in Italy’s Graveglia Valley.

In the first paper, Mahmoud Alkhatib, Nabil Thabteh, Fuad Al‑Rimawi, and Mutaz Qutob demonstrate how ATR‑FTIR can quantify strontianite and witherite within synthetic aragonite-group carbonates without sample preparation, offering a rapid alternative to X‑ray diffraction. Their calibration curves use absorbance ratios between peaks to reduce variability caused by measurement conditions ¹.

The second study, authored by Thomas Daniel van Gerve, Philippe Muchez, Ted Nuorivaara, and Olivier Namur, investigates how microscopic exsolution textures in Fe–Ti oxide minerals influence crushing strategies and pre‑concentration of vanadium and titanium. They find that tightly intergrown structures hinder separation while coarser arrangements improve magnetic and flotation processing, underscoring the importance of texture identification for efficient ore exploitation ¹.

Finally, Cristian Biagioni, Jiří Sejkora, and Zdeněk Dolníček report the crystal structure and genesis of Belmonteite, CaMn₂(AsO₄)₂(H₂O)₅·2H₂O, discovered in Mn ore deposits of the Graveglia Valley, Liguria (Italy). The mineral features {010} layers of six‑fold‑coordinated Mn atoms decorated on both sides by (AsO₄) groups and Ca atoms, connected through hydrogen bonds. Its formation is linked to As‑rich oxidizing fluids circulating within the deposit, and it was named after Donato Belmonte for his contributions to Ligurian mineralogy ¹.