• Home
• About Us
• Mineral Identification

Home > Uranium Minerals II – November 29 > MS0828 Boltwoodite

Boltwoodite - Sold

• Rössing mine
• Arandis
• Namibia

• 5.1 by 4.4 by 2.1 cm – Miniature specimen (fits into a 5 cm cube)

Orange needles of boltwoodite form radiating sprays to 6 mm across on a bed of smoky calcite crystals. Boltwoodite is an ore mineral at the Rössing mine, one of the largest producers of uranium in the world. Frondel & Ito (1956) named boltwoodite in honor of Bertram Borden Boltwood (1870–1927), radiochemist of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, who devised the U-Pb method of measuring geologic time. Studies by Stohl & Smith (1981) and Burns (1998) have defined the formula of boltwoodite: K(UO₂)(SiO₃OH)·1.5H₂O. Burns (1998) noted a substantial sodium content to his Rössing sample.