Recent  

This paper describes the characterisation of a new mineral from a South Australian phosphate quarry. The characterisation included chemical analyses, infrared spectroscopy, and a determination and refinement of the crystal structure. The results showed that the mineral has a unique crystal chemistry, but it is closely related to the well-known phosphate mineral crandallite.

The paper reports the type description of the new mineral species graulichite-(La). This is a new addition to the dussertite group within the alunite supergroup, and its discovery improves our knowledge on the crystal chemistry of this important supergroup of minerals, having both technological and environmental applications.

This work presents new thermoelastic parameters and the structural evolution of burbankite at high pressure and high temperature, obtained by in situ synchrotron radiation single-crystal diffraction measurements. Burbankite is a carbonate that may potentially play a key role as an upper-mantle reservoir of light REE³⁺. We observed that the density of burbankite is greater with respect to carbonatitic magmas, indicating a possible fractionation of this phase in upper-mantle conditions.