Titanium, Ti, A New Mineral Species from Luobusha, Tibet, China

Abstract

Abstract: We describe the new mineral species titanium, ideally Ti, found in the podiform chromitites of the Luobusha ophiolite in Tibet, People's Republic of China. The irregular crystals range from 0.1 to 0.6 mm in diameter and form an intergrowth with coesite and kyanite. Titanium is silver grey in colour, the luster is metallic, it is opaque, the streak is grayish black, and it is non‐fluorescent. The mineral is malleable, has a rough to hackly fracture and has no apparent cleavage. The estimated Mohs hardness is 4, and the calculated density is 4.503 g/cm 3 . The composition is Ti 99.23–100.00 wt%. The mineral is hexagonal, space group P 6 3 / mmc . Unit‐cell parameters are a 2.950 (2) Å, c 4.686 (1) Å, V 35.32 (5) Å 3 , Z = 2. The five strongest powder diffraction lines [d in Å (hkl) (I/I 0 )] are: 2.569 (010) (32), 2.254(011) (100), 1.730 (012) (16), 1.478 (110) (21), and 0.9464 (121) (8). The species and name were approved by the CNMNC (IMA 2010‐044).