Chinese scientists have discovered a new mineral in the south of the country

Chinese geologists have discovered and officially registered a new mineral, jinxu— at the Longhua nickel-cobalt deposit in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south of the country. This was reported on December 18 by the Hong Kong 01 news Agency.

As specified, the new mineral is a sulfide of nickel, bismuth, antimony and arsenic. It was discovered by specialists from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and received official recognition after a vote by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association. The Chinese name of the mineral is jinxiu.

According to Yan Jiayong, head of the Laboratory of Theory and Technology of Deep mineral Exploration, jinxu was formed as a result of the substitution of previously formed nickel-containing minerals, which led to a restructuring of the crystal structure and the formation of a new stable mineral compound.

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Experts note that the Longhua deposit belongs to the category of particularly rich: the nickel content in the ore reaches about 17.5%, and the cobalt content is about 1.5%, which is almost 80 times higher than the industrial average. In this regard, the discovery is important for studying the genesis of hydrothermal nickel-cobalt deposits and may contribute to breakthroughs in the search for strategically scarce resources, including cobalt, for which China is heavily dependent on imports.

The scientific community emphasizes that the discovery of new minerals expands the understanding of the processes of evolution of matter in extreme geological conditions and can create the basis for the development of materials with special physico-chemical properties.

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Earlier that day, the China Daily newspaper reported on the discovery of the phenomenon of mineralization of rare earth elements in ferns. It was noted that the discovery could become the basis for an environmentally friendly way to extract these strategically important resources.

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