New Mineral Described From Uranium Mine In Utah

New Mineral Described From Uranium Mine In Utah. Yellow oldsite blades with blue stanleyite and white szomolnokite on asphaltum. Horizontal field of view is 0.7 millimeters. Photo by Dr. Anthony Kampf.

A new mineral named oldsite has been verified and accepted by the International Mineralogical Association.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History announces the naming of the new mineral Oldsite after Dr. Travis Olds, the museum’s Assistant Curator of Minerals. The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) verified the mineral, which was accepted in October 2021 by an international team of scientists. Oldsite is named in recognition of Olds’ contributions to uranium minerology.

Collected at Utah’s North Mesa mines near Temple Mountain, Oldsite forms from the interaction of air and water with uranium and iron-sulfide ores in the humid underground environment, leading to crystalline deposits on the surfaces of mine walls. Oldsite occurs as tiny yellow, rectangular blades measuring up to 0.3 millimeters in length. The crystals are thin and brittle and dissolve in water.

The holotype specimen of Oldsite, or original specimen to be named, is held in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Its chemical formula is K₂Fe²⁺[(UO₂)(SO₄)₂]₂(H₂O)₈.

“I’m honored to be the namesake of such a fascinating mineral,” said Olds. “My research focuses on descriptive minerology, particularly minerals containing uranium, which has been my passion since I knew I wanted to become a mineralogist. Oldsite is unique because it helps us fill in some puzzle pieces about how uranium behaves in the environment. The way its atoms connect to each other in the crystal structure tells us about the conditions that led to its formation. This information can be useful to help keep uranium out of drinking water, or to clean up nuclear waste.”

The research team that discovered and described Oldsite includes Dr. Jakub Plášil from the Czech Republic’s Institute of Physics ASCR, Dr. Anthony R. Kampf of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Dr. Chi Ma of California Institute of Technology, and German mineralogist Joy Desor.

The above story is based on materials provided by Carnegie Museum of Natural History.