Home > Uranium Minerals II – November 29 > MS0821 Voglite, Gypsum

Voglite, Gypsum - Sold

White Canyon #1 mine
Frey Point
San Juan County
Utah
U.S.A.

7.1 by 4.6 by 3.2 cm – Small cabinet specimen (under 10 cm)

Mining in White Canyon was an important part of the Cold War uranium boom (1950s-1960s). While overshadowed in production by the nearby Happy Jack mine, other claims in White Canyon produced colorful encrustations of exotic uranium minerals, here dominated by uranyl carbonate minerals. This specimen features a rich coverage of green voglite overgrown by crystalline gypsum.

Vogl (1853) described a green uranium mineral from Jáchymov, Czech Republic. In an editorial comment immediately following the paper, Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger proposed the name voglite after the author, Josef Florian Vogl (1818–1896). This is a historical practice, no longer sanctioned by the International Mineralogical Association. Later study by Frondel (1958) (note: file size 24.6MB) established the currently accepted formula of Ca₂Cu(UO₂)(CO₃)₄·6H₂O and Piret (1979) defined a unit cell with monoclinic symmetry. To this day, the crystal structure remains unsolved. Although overgrown by gypsum, the rich emerald green color of voglite shows through. This is a fine showy example.

This specimen comes with a vintage Minerals Unlimited label. The proprietor of Minerals Unlimited, Ralph Merrill likely obtained this specimen from Otto Ray, a serious mineral collector from Salt Lake City.