Home > Lead Minerals – December 31 > MS1157 Chervetite with Francevillite

Chervetite with Francevillite - Sold


Francevillite is a barium uranyl vanadate mineral. Branche et al. (1957) named francevillite after Franceville, a city near its type locality. Chervetite is a much rarer mineral, specifically lead pyrovanadate. Bariand et al. (1963) named the mineral after Jean Chervet (1904-1962), French mineralogist. This piece comes from the type locality for both species, Mounana uranium mine, a naturally occurring nuclear reactor!

This specimen consists of an encrustation of bright orange francevillite mostly covered with chervetite crystals. The chervetite crystals reach 6 mm on this example. According to an accompanying label, this specimen once belonged to Jean Chervet. Nice!