HASTINGSITE



Hastingsite, a sodium calcium iron aluminum silicate hydroxide mineral of the amphibole group, was first reported from Sterling Hill by Credner (1866) and from Franklin by Kloos (1886); additional data was provided by Palache (1935). The name gamsigradite was applied to this material at one time.
Local hastingsite has been little studied. The analysis of Kloos (1886) provided by Palache (1935) is calculated as a magnesian hastingsite using the nomenclature of Leake (1978). [Dunn] has analyzed material which fits the description of Kloos (1886), and which is labeled as coming from Franklin, and found the composition to be similar to that reported by Kloos. [Dunn] also analyzed the lustrous black 1-2 mm crystals which occur epitactic on Sterling Hill augite (formerly called jeffersonite), and found them to be magnesian hastingsite.
Hastingsite was described by Reilly (1983) (using the old name ferrohastingsite) from Sterling Hill, in drill hole #124, 111 feet from its origin on the 340 level. It was found as an alteration product of diopside in an assemblage of calcite, franklinite, diopside and grossular. Four microprobe analyses were provided; the most iron-rich of these yielded SiO2 35.02, Al2O3 12.51, CaO 10.74, FeO 27.31, MnO 0.35, MgO 2.79, K2O 3.50, ZnO 1.63, ClO (sic) 2.10, TiO2 0.50, total = 96.45 wt. %.
Much of the black-to-green amphibole associated with magnetite at Balls Hill is hastingsite. These hastingsites are potassian (up to 3.5 wt. % K20) and vary principally in their Fe:Mg ratios (2:1 to 1:5); MnO and ZnO average < 0.5 wt. %. Dr. Robert Popp (personal communication) found 2.45-2.48 wt. % fluorine and reported the ferric-iron/total iron ratio (Fe3+/(Fe2+ + Fe3+= 0.28 (± 0.01) in a sample of hastingsite (Betancourt # PPB-2769) from old workings just south of the Fowler Quarry adjacent to Balls Hill. (Dunn, 1995)

 Location Found: Franklin and Ogdensburg
     
 
 Year Discovered: 1896
     
 Formula: {Na}{Ca2}{Fe42+Fe3+}(Al2Si6O22)(OH)2
 Essential Elements: Aluminum, Calcium, Hydrogen, Iron, Oxygen, Silicon, Sodium
 All Elements in Formula: Aluminum, Calcium, Hydrogen, Iron, Oxygen, Silicon, Sodium
     
 IMA Status: Approved
     
     
 To find out more about this mineral at minDat's website, follow this link   Hastingsite

     
 References:
Dunn, Pete J. (1995). Franklin and Sterling Hill New Jersey: the world's most magnificent mineral deposits. Franklin, NJ.: The Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society. p.454

Frondel, Clifford (1972). The minerals of Franklin and Sterling Hill, a checklist. NY.: John Willey & Sons. p.60
The Picking Table References
 PT Issue and PageDescription / Comment
View IssueV. 27 No. 2 - Fall 1986, pg. 28Mineral Notes Research Reports, Hastingsite
     
No Images at this time.
     





All content including, but not limited to, mineral images, maps, graphics, and text on the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society, Inc. (FOMS) website is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons License