Discovery of New Mineral
TapTechNews October 1 news, on September 18, China University of Geosciences released a blog post reporting that the school's team discovered for the first time in black shale a new mineral with the highest vanadium content, Berndlehmannite, Chinese name is Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine, and the mineral abbreviation is Blm, which was approved by the International Mineralogical Association - New Minerals Naming and Classification Committee (IMA-CNMNC), with the approval number IMA2024-005.
Project team introduction
The project is led by the team of Associate Professor Xu Lingang and Professor Li Guowu from China University of Geosciences, and doctoral student Fu Xuerui discovered the Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine in Zhongcun Vanadium Mine in Shanyang County, Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province.
The discoverers of the new mineral are: Fu Xuerui, Li Guowu, Xu Lingang, Xue Yuan, Sun Ningyue, Hao Jinhua, Jian Wei, Yan Hao, Ye Huisou, Ding Jianhua, Yuan Peng.
Introduction of Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine
TapTechNews learned from the report that the Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine is a black opaque mineral with metallic luster and a light cream color under reflected light. This mineral occurs in the form of individual mineral particles ranging from 20 to 120 μm in the vanadium-rich black shale.
The Mohs hardness of the Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine is 3 and 1/2, with brittleness and 111 mine complete cleavage, belonging to the cubic crystal system and the space group is Fd-3m.
This ore belongs to a member of the Carrollite Subgroup in the Thiospinel Group, and its ideal crystal chemical formula: Cu(CrV)S4. The main associated minerals are pyrite, sphalerite and vanadium mica, etc.
The Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine is named after Professor Bernd Lehmann (1950-) from Clausthal University of Technology in Germany to recognize his important contribution to the research on black shale-related minerals in southern China.
The Zhongcun Vanadium Copper Mine is the first discovered in China's vanadium-rich black shale as an independent mineral in the form of a new vanadium sulfide, in which the average V content is 17 wt%, which is the highest V content mineral in the vanadium deposit hosted by black shale currently known.
The discovery of this mineral has important theoretical and practical significance for the future research on the extraordinary enrichment mechanism of vanadium in black shale and the beneficiation and metallurgy of black shale-type vanadium ore.