Home > Type Localities – March 17 > MS1540 Ruizite, Hydroxyapophyllite
Ruizite, Hydroxyapophyllite - Sold
- Christmas mine
- Gila County
- Arizona
- U.S.A.
- 5.7 by 4.7 by 2.1 cm – Miniature specimen (fits into a 5 cm cube)
Ruizite is a calcium manganese silicate known from a handful of worldwide occurences. Williams & Duggan (1977) named the mineral after Joe Ana Ruiz (1924-2017), pharmacist and mineral collector of Mammoth, Arizona. Fendrich et al. (2016) redetermined the crystal structure of the mineral.
The Christmas mine is a copper mine with an extensive skarn formation; on fracture surfaces in the skarn interesting microcrystals form, such as red-brown ruizite and minor blue kinoite as in this example. Earlier formed minerals find themselves later covered in pearly microrystals of hydroxyapophllite-(K). This is a very rich ruizite specimen for the type locality.
