Home > Type Localities II – November 19 > MS1143 Kovdorskite

Kovdorskite - Sold


Kovdorskite is a magnesium phosphate mineral, originally named by Kapustin et al. (1980). The name denotes the large geological structure, the Kovdor Massif, in which the mineral occurs. Morrison et al. (2012) showed the X-ray diffraction pattern of kovdorskite calculated from the reported crystal structure of Ovchinnikov et al. (1980) did not match data produced fro the RRUFF project. Ultimately, it seems this error resulted from an erroneous unit cell choice in Ovchinnikov et al. (1980). This specimen of kovdorskite hosts crystals to 9 mm, mostly perpendicular to the matrix. This specimen has seen better days, and many of the crystals are unfortunately broken. However, the most prominent crystals seems to be intact. When the Russian mineral dealers first came to the United States in the early 1990s, they did not wrap up their specimens so well.