Billietite is an uncommon mineral of
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
that contains
barium
Barium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element.
Th ...
. It has the chemical formula: Ba(UO
2)
6O
4(OH)
6•8H
2O. It usually occurs as clear yellow
orthorhombic
In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic Lattice (group), lattices result from stretching a cubic crystal system, cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, res ...
crystals.
[M. Katherine Pagoaga, Daniel E, Appleman, & James M. Stewart "Crystal structures and crystal chemistry of the uranyl oxide hydrates becquerelite, billietite, and protasite" ''American Mineralogist,'' Volume 72, pages 1230-1238, 198]
/ref>
Billietite is named after Valere Louis Billiet (1903–1945), Belgian crystallographer at the University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.
Billietite was discovered in the locality of the Shinkolobwe uranium mine in the Haut-Katanga Province
Haut-Katanga (French for "Upper Katanga") is one of the 21 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the Subdivisions of the DR Congo#New provinces, 2015 repartitioning. Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba Province, Lualaba, an ...
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
(DRC).[
]
References
External links
webmineral.com
Uranium(VI) minerals
Orthorhombic minerals
Minerals in space group 33
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