Encyclopedia of Japanese Minerals (Go to Intro Page)
by Alfredo Petrov
Minerals Starting with "P"
PARAGONITE (sohda-unmo)
Ehime: Associated with hornblende, kyanite, zoisite and margarite in amphibolite schist at Tohnaru. With ruby in amphibole-zoisite rock in the Hodono valley. Reported from the Besshi mine (country rock, = one of previous localities??).
Hyougo: Pale pink to greyish pink, platy crystals to 3 cm diameter at Kabozaka are found intergrown with white jadeite in albitite rock. (Locality now covered by a steel net.)
PARAGUANAJUATITE (para-guanajuato-koh)
Shizuoka: Kawazu mine (Min. J. Japan, 14, #3, July 1988).
PARARSENOLAMPRITE ( IMA # 99-047) (para-ki-hi-koh) (aka "PARA-ARSENOLAMPRITE")
Ouita: The type locality for this very rare orthorhombic dimorph of native arsenic is the dump of the Mukuno mine, in a gold-silver-bearing hydrothermal quartz vein cutting native arsenic-stibnite-bearing andesitic country rock. Para-arsenolamprite forms metallic lead-grey, thin elongated, longitudinally-striated tabular bladed crystals to 0.8mm, elongated on [100] and flattened on {001}, aggregated as parallel or radiating foliated spherules to 3mm across, on botryoidal native arsenic in drusy quartz vugs. A little stibnite is also associated. Whereas the arsenic rapidly tarnishes grey and oxidizes, the para-arsenolamprite remains bright and appears to be stable (possibly because of its 3 to 6 atom% Sb content). (Black streak; sectile; H 2-2.5; D 5.88; perfect {001} cleavage; under ore microscope, white with slightly greenish blue tint.) The tiny handful of specimens available on the market have mostly been found by restudy of Mukuno "native arsenic" specimens in collections, although one new specimen was recently found by a diligent collector digging deeply into a dump (until an undermined tree fell down and angered the landowner!).
PARASIBIRSKITE (=IMA 96-051) (para-shiberia-seki)
Okayama: The type locality for this (hydrous?) Calcium borate is in high-temperature borate-bearing skarn at Fuka, where it forms white microcrystal aggregates with olshanskyite; also with sibirskite and olshanskyite as cm-size massive bands in marble. In a Ca-borate vein, averaging 10cm thick (max. 2m); other components are takedaite, nifontovite, sibirskite, henmilite and pentahydroborite. Formed by hydrothermal alteration of takedaite.
PARASYMPLESITE (a-hi-ran-tekkoh)
Gifu: Minute sprays of short acicular crystals less than 0.2mm, on loellingite-bearing greisen dike at the Ichiyanagi tungsten mine.
Ouita: Dark to light greenish blue to bluish green parasymplesite crystals to 5mm form sprays and stellate aggregates in the Kiura mine, which is the type locality for this rare arsenate analogue of vivianite, which it closely resembles in habit and cleavage, and with which it was apparently confused when first found. Chemically close to the theoretical composition, with only minor Fe''' oxide (0.81 wt%), and no phosphate, Mg or Ca. As a secondary mineral on quartz crystals and on compact goethite, and filling cavities in the weathered outcrop of an oxidized arsenopyrite-quartz vein (which had been mined for arsenic) cutting granodiorite. (H 2; D 3.07; RI 1.628 - 1.705; pleochroism bluish, yellowish, brownish yellow.)
PARATACAMITE (para-atakama-seki)
Kagoshima: Green paratacamite is associated with green atacamite and blue connellite as crusts to several cm on the walls of a long-abandoned copper mine on 1km-wide uninhabited Futago island.
PARATELLURITE (para-teruru-seki)
Shizuoka: Straw-yellow(?) coatings in cracks and narrow fissures at the Kawazu mine.
PARGASITE (pahgasu-senseki)
Gifu: As spheroidal nodules in hornfels in Kawai-mura. Contain magnesiosadanagaite in the cores of the balls. Also as cores, surrounded by Al-rich intermediate magnesiosadanagaite-pargasite rims, in contact metamorphic halo.
Iwate: Ferroan pargasite (Mg 2.45, Fe'' 1.24, Fe''' 0.31, Mn 0.03) occurs at Tamasato.
Kumamoto: Pargasite is associated with tridymite (qv), hematite, calcite and plagioclase in vugs in hornblende-augite-hypersthene andesite at Ishigami-yama. Dark brown lustrous long-prismatic free-growing crystals reach 8mm. A specimen with tridymite and cristobalite in drusy vugs in augite-hypersthene dacite here gave (Ca 1.57, Na 0.73, K 0.32) (Mg 4.04, Al 0.74, Fe'' 0.48, Fe''' 0.06, Ti 0.03, Mn'' 0.01) (Si 6.49, Al 1.51) O 22 ((OH) 1.66, F 0.12) (Matsumoto, H. (1958) Journ. Jap. Assoc. Min. Petr. Econ. Geol., 38, 26).
Shimane: Onzaki (Onzakibana?) in Matsue-shi. Titanium-rich ferroan pargasite occurs in the Namariyama granophyres, eastern San-in district (Shimane or Kyoto?).
PARNAUITE (parunoh-seki)
Hiroshima: Rosettes of pale green parnauite xls with pearly luster, sometimes as spheres to 1cm from which grow radiating long tabular xls, together with pale green cubes of pharmacosiderite, on limonitized rock associated with a pneumatolytic copper ore vein in a granite quarry at Hayashi, on Ikuchi island.
Shizuoka: Kawazu mine.
PARVOWINCHITE
(Some japanese alkali-bearing "tirodite", presently listed under MANGANOCUMMINGTONITE (qv), might be better classified as parvowinchite.)
PAVONITE (pabon-koh)
Hokkaido: Selenian pavonite, with 8.5 to 9.5 wt% Se, occurs in narrow polymetallic bands in the Ohkubo vein of the Suttsu mine (Shuji Ono, et al. (2004) Resource Geology 54, 4, 453-464).
Hyougo: With electrum, cassiterite and a treasurite-like phase in the polymetallic zone of the Ikuno mine.
PEARCEITE (piasu-koh)
Akita: Found kuroko-type ore at the Hanaoka mine, the Kosaka mine, and the Shakanai mine.
Hokkaido: Black pearceite was found with steel grey aguilarite and electrum at the Koryu mine.
Shizuoka: At the Seikohshi mine, as hexagonal crystals from several mm up to 3cm!
PENTAHYDROBORITE (gosui-kaihoh-seki)
Okayama: Forms crystalline veins composed of colorless to white spears to 5mm (exceptionally 1cm) in high-temperature pyrometasomatic marble at Fuka. Second world locality for pentahydroborite. Also here as a minor constituent of a large takedaite-nifontovite-olshanskyite-sibirskite-parasibirskite-henmilite vein. And as pink to light brown pentahydroborite with white frolovite. Crystals are sometimes confused with calcite; easiest way to distinguish small grains is by their easy solubility in 5% acetic acid without effervescence.
PERICLASE (perikurehsu)
Gifu: In marble with sadanagaite at Nogohakusan. Also at Nogodani (same place???????).
PEROVSKITE (kai-chitan-seki; perobusukii-seki)
Okayama: Brown-black to dark brown with a yellow tint, greasy to submetallic grains and sharp crystals to 2mm at Fuka, weathering out of violet spurrite and dark brown gehlenite. Also as anhedral masses to 2cm in violet spurrite.
PETALITE (petaru-ishi; petaru-seki)
Fukuoka: As chalky, white to cream, roughly tabular masses to about 5cm, associated with montmorillonite and pink elbaite in lepidolite-rich pegmatite at Nagatare-yama.
PETERSITE-(Y) (piitahsu-seki)
Shiga: Bright green gemmy, short prismatic crystals in Cu-rich skarn exposed in a quarry on Haiyama hill. (Okamoto, A., Miyawaki, R., Nakai, I. (1988) Petersite from the Haiyama quarry, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Geoscience Magazine 37, 191-194.)
PETRUKITE (petorakku-koh)
Hyougo: Visible only in polished section, as grey inclusions in stannite from the Ikuno mine, which is a co-type locality for this rare indium-bearing copper-tin sulfide. Petrukite shows 3 distinct cleavages, and is associated with stannite, sakuraiite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, cassiterite, galena, matildite and arsenopyrite, only in one banded hydrothermal vein, the Sendju-hon-hi vein in the Kanagase orebody. Originally thought to be kesterite, but all such "kesterite" inclusions in stannite from the Ikuno mine are probably really petrukite.
PETZITE (pettsu-koh)
Fukuoka: With melonite, volynskite and hessite as late-stage vein filling in scheelite-bearing quartz skarn at the Yokozuru mine.
Iwate: Minute greyish grains visible by ore microscopy with pyrite, altaite, hessite and sylvanite in milky quartz from the Nojiri mine. Also here with tiny grains of silver-white non-graphic sylvanite, gold and acanthite in massive white quartz. Anaysis showed Au:Ag = 1:1.59 by weight. Grey petzite occurs with a dark yellow gold alloy at the Setamai gold deposit.
Kagoshima: In minor amounts with hessite and altaite, in dark sphalerite-chalcopyrite-galena bands ("ginguro") to 1cm thick in quartz-calcite veins at the Kushikino mine.
PHARMACOSIDERITE (doku-tekkoh)
Aichi: Takara mine.
Hiroshima: Pale green transparent cubes to 2mm, associated with pale green parnauite, in limonitized pneumatolytic copper ore vein cutting granite at a quarry on Ikuchi island.
Kyoto: Dirty yellow to greenish crusts of lustrous rhombic crystals on Gyoujayama.
Okayama: Associated with legrandite or other arsenates in limonitized arsenopyrite-sphalerite-bearing skarn at the Ohgibira mine.
Shimane: Deposited from Ikeda mineral spring in Ouda city.
PHENAKITE (fenaku-seki)
Gifu: Very rarely in miarolytic cavities in coarse-grained biotite granite at Tawara (sometimes labelled "Naegi district").
Hiroshima: In fluorite-biotite skarn associated with minor scheelite, alkali-feldspar, plagioclase and natrolite, at contact with fluorite-danalite-bearing monzonite at the Mihara fluorite mine.
PHILIPSBORNITE (firippusubohn-seki)
Gifu: The Tohgane mine was the 1st japanese locality for philipsbornite. In fractures in an oxidized pneumatolytic W-Mo-Bi-bearing quartz vein with arsenopyrite and scorodite.
Tochigi: The Nikko mine was the 2nd locality in Japan for philipsbornite, which here forms pale green to greenish white masses to several mm embedded in limonite. Crusts of bright light green spheroids at the nearby Okorogawa mine.
PHILLIPSITE-Ca (kai-juuji-fusseki)
Aichi: Inuyama city (phillipsite-Ca??).
Niigata: At Maze, in amygdules of altered basalt agglomerate, as good specimens associated with gonnardite, erionite-Ca and other zeolite species.
Shimane: Oki islands.
PHILLIPSITE-K (kari-juuji-fusseki)
Shimane: Hamada. Also at Nagahama (phillipsite-K?) (same place as Hamada?).
PHILLIPSITE-Na (sohda-juuji-fusseki)
Chiba: In Paleocene andesite lava at Nagasakibana. (phillipsite-Na???)
Nagasaki: In amygdules in altered basalt conglomerate exposed on the seashore at Chojabaru, as milky white xls lacking distinct faces. Also as rare interpenetrant twins.
Niigata: At Ogi on Sado island.
Saga: Brown phillipsite-Na crystals, coated with white radiating crusts of gonnardite-Na, thomsonite, and chabazite, in hydrothermal veins transecting olivine basalt at Hayata and at Umezaki.
PHLOGOPITE (kin-unmo)
(Also includes much of the poorly determined material listed under "Biotite" (qv). Some of the "manganophyllite" listed here might be shirozulite.)
Aichi: Reddish brown to golden brown micaceous "manganophyllite" embedded in Taguchi mine Mn ore is usually Mn-rich phlogopite (normal, hydroxyl-dominant), but can also be the rarer shirozulite.
Chiba: Highly unusual copper-manganese-bearing phlogopites (up to 5.5 wt% CuO and 7.5 wt% MnO) occur in Kamogawa-shi, with hematite, piemontite and aegirine-augite in low-sulfur epidote-amphibolite of the Mineoka metamorphic formation.
Fukushima: The invalidated species "ferriphlogopite-1M" had its type locality in the Teshirogi district, but is now considered to be ferrian phlogopite-1M. Green ferric-rich phlogopite is a major constituent of "biotite" schist at Seto, empirically (K 0.66, Na 0.38, Ca 0.05) Mg 1.02, Fe''' 0.53, Fe'' 0.42, Mn 0.02, Ti 0.08, Al 1.35 (Si 2.79, Al 0.21) O 10 (OH) 2.21, with 0.02 wt% P2O5 (Shidoh, 1958; in DHZ).
Gifu: Dark brown phlogopite in marble at the Kasuga dolomite mine. Hornfels country rock in this area (Kasuga-mura) contains interleaved aggregates of phlogopite with its Na analogue aspidolite (qv), surrounded by phlogopite rims, perhaps formed by later metasomatic alteration.
Iwate: Manganoan phlogopite ("manganophyllite") occurs with richterite and manganoan augite ("urbanite") in hornfels at the Noda-Tamagawa mine. Also at Kamineichi, at Kebaraichi, and at Nejoh.
Kumamoto: With hornblende, tridymite, etc, in pyroxene andesite on Ishigami-yama.
Mie: As inclusions in yellow-brown Na-rich stilbite (qv) sheaves in granite at Onigajou.
Nagano: The "biotite" which is a major constituent of cordierite-biotite hornfels at Tenryohkyoh, empirically (K 0.86, Na 0.05) Mg 1.10, Fe'' 1.07, Mn 0.02, Fe''' 0.04, Ti 0.15, Al 1.47 (Si 2.66, Al 0.34) O 10 (OH) 1.92, is apparently an iron-rich phlogopite, close to the compositional boundary of annite (Tsuboi, 1938; in DHZ).
Niigata: Brownish scaly-granular in albite-magnesioriebeckite matrix in the Ohmi river.
Shimane: At the Tsumo copper-iron-pyrites mine.
Tottori: In vesicular basalt at Iwashiro. As brown scales richly disseminated in rock at Sanmyohji (same place?????).
Yamaguchi: At Sekiyama, as pale brown, transparent, lamellar hexagonal xls to a few mm in basalt amygdules. Brown thin platy crystals of phlogopite-1M to 5mm standing in vugs in trachybasalt on Mutsure-jima. (Both in Shimonoseki city. Same place???)
PHOSPHOSIDERITE (tansha-rin-tekkoh)
Hyougo: Reported from the vivianite (qv) nodules in Pliocene clay at various spots in Nishi-ku, Kobe city.
Nagano: In phosphate-rich Pleistocene limonite bed at the Suwa iron mine.
(Sometimes seen in collections labelled with the obsolete name "clinostrengite")
PHOSPHURANYLITE (rin-uraniru-seki)
Fukushima: At Shiozawa, in Ishikawa-mura pegmatite district.
Tottori: In the Ningyoh-tohge epigenetic uranium district, disseminated or as thin films in oxide zone of a Pliocene basal conglomerate overlying granite.
"PICROGALAXITE"
= Mg-Fe-bearing GALAXITE (qv) from Tochigi-ken.
"PICROURBANITE"
(See AEGIRINE from Noda-Tamagawa mine, Iwate-ken, although a new Na-Mg-pyroxene is perhaps also possible.)
PIEMONTITE (kohren-seki)
(Note that "piemontite" is often used loosely as a general term for red Mn'''-bearing epidote-group members, and so some of the material listed here may really be just red epidote or clinozoisite. More analyses are needed.)
Widespread in Japan as a major component of piemontite schists in the Sambagawa, Sangun, Kamuikotan, Misaka and Sonoki metamorphic belts. Also in metamorphosed Mn deposits in the Sambagawa, Sonoki and Sangun metamorphic belts in Shikoku, always associated with braunite.
Chiba: With hematite, aegirine-augite and Cu-Mn-rich phlogopite in epidote-amphibolite of the Mineoka metamorphic formation in Kamogawa city.
Ehime: Reddish purple to fine pink, relatively large acicular piemontite crystals form aggregates as a major component of piemontite schists in the Sambagawa metamorphic belt near the Besshi mine. Similarly at the Sazare mine, where piemontite schists contain pods of braunite. An analysis of a "piemontite" from this general area corresponds to (Ca 1.98, Fe'' 0.01, Mg 0.005) (Al 2.06, Fe''' 0.67, Mn 0.27, Ti 0.04) (Si 2.97) (OH 0.86) apfu, which is either epidote or clinozoisite rather than true piemontite. Red needles to 1mm in quartz schist at Irazu-yama. Some beautifully colored Ehime piemontite schists are polished for lapidary uses.
Hokkaido: In Mn-bearing hematite ore with okhotskite at the Kokuriki mine.
Kanagawa: With manganoan grossular at the Dainichi mine.
Kouchi: Sanbagawa metamorphic terrain in the Asemi-gawa area: ardennite-bearing banded quartz-piemontite schists (0.5 to 2mm quartz-piemontite bands). Also as piemontite-muscovite-quartz schists, whose tightly folded red piemontite bands, in 20cm lengths up to 1.5cm thick, look quite spectacular. Some beautifully colored Kouchi piemontite schists are used for lapidary work.
Nagasaki: Pink piemontite schist, containing Ba-Mn-bearing muscovite and lenses of braunite, forms the country rock around the Matsugaseko mine. Long prismatic crystals to 2cm, can still be collected at the Tone mine, associated with braunite as braunite-piemontite ore. With braunite at the Ouishitone mine. Also at the Mie mine, the Muramatsu mine, and the Sakiyama mine. (same places - overlapping localities??)
Niigata: Hashidate.
Saitama: In the Nagatoro district. A component of greenstones and schistose pyroclastics associated with chert at Umezono, together with epidote, glaucophane, stilpnomelane and pumpellyite.
Tokushima: At Ohtakiyama, vivid reddish purple, acicular to prismatic xls to 3cm(!) long (the largest in Japan), exhibiting (100), (001), (102), (101) and (111) faces, form banded aggregates with muscovite and quartz in piemontite schist. Bright red folded bands, from less than 1mm to over 7cm thick, in schist at Bizan.
Yamanashi: In mildly metamorphosed pyroclastics around the Ochiai manganese mine.
PIGEONITE (pijon-kiseki)
Fukushima: A porphyritic "ferropigeonite andesite" with pigeonite phenocrysts is described from Ohkuboyama, Minami-Aizu (qv Ferroaugite).
Kanagawa: Pigeonite occurs abundantly as 0.1 to 0.7mm long microphenocrysts in hypersthene-olivine andesite at Usugoyazawa on the eastern caldera wall of Hakone volcano. Analysis showed a divalent cation ratio of Mg 1.305: Fe 0.522: Ca 0.160: Mn 0.018. Also in augite-pigeonite-hypersthene andesite on Hakone-tohge, and elsewhere on Hakone in hypersthene-bearing "pigeonite-quartz diorite". Pigeonite druses (comp. Fs 71, En 23, Wo 6) in vugs in dacite from Hakone volcano. Other analyzed pigeonites from Hakone volcano: (Mg 1.296, Fe'' 0.523, Ca 0.161, Mn'' 0.017, Na 0.014, Fe''' 0.008, K 0.000) (Si 1.955, Fe''' 0.022, Al 0.018, Ti 0.006) O 6 (Fe''' distribution assumed) as microphenocrysts in the groundmass of a hypersthene-olivine andesite (The orthopyroxene in this sample has almost identical composition, except for slightly lower Ca: 2.67 wt% CaO versus 4.06 % in the pigeonite!); (Mg 1.031, Fe'' 0.674, Ca 0.261, Na 0.097, Ti 0.006, Fe''' 0.004, K 0.001) (Si 1.902, Al 0.088, Ti 0.010) O 6 (Ti distribution assumed) from an augite-pigeonite-hypersthene andesite; (Mg 0.921, Fe'' 0.743, Ca 0.290, Na 0.019, Mn'' 0.017, Ti 0.017, K 0.010, Al 0.004, Fe''' 0.003) (Si 1.940, Al 0.060) O 6 in andesite; (Mg 0.900, Fe'' 0.761, Ca 0.132, Fe''' 0.099, Mn'' 0.081) (Si 1.936, Al 0.032, Ti 0.018, Fe''' 0.014) O 6 (Fe''' distribution assumed) from an ejected block of remelted quartz diorite in pumice. The Hakone occurences of pigeonite as macroscopic phenocrysts are mineralogically noteworthy, since pigeonite commonly occurs only in the fine-grained groundmass of volcanic rocks.
Shizuoka: Zoned crystals including pigeonite and "subcalcic augite" compositions in various parts of the Izu-Hakone province. Microphenocrysts (0.1 to 0.7mm long) of pigeonite and the "hypersthene" variety of enstatite occur abundantly in those basic andesites and basalts on the Izu peninsula which do not contain augite phenocrysts. (The very slightly Sr-bearing "augite" (DHZ) from olivine basalt on Hatsushima (off the coast of Atami city) appears to be closer to pigeonite: (Mg 0.707, Fe'' 0.684, Ca 0.554, Na 0.025, Al 0.012, Mn'' 0.012, Fe''' 0.010, K 0.006, Ti 0.004, Sr 0.002) (Si 1.967, Al 0.033) apfu.
Tokyo: "Subcalcic augites" (DHZ) from Ohshima island appear to correspond to pigeonite. One from a "hypersthene-augite basalt" gave (Mg 0.925, Fe'' 0.582, Ca 0.407, Na 0.048, Fe''' 0.047, Mn'' 0.019, K 0.008) (Si 1.905, Fe''' 0.047, Al 0.034, Ti 0.016) apfu. A sample from a hypersthene basalt gave (Mg 0.937, Fe 0.580, Ca 0.392, Fe''' 0.056, Na 0.031, Mn'' 0.025, K 0.003) (Si 1.902, Fe''' 0.052, Al 0.027, Ti 0.021) apfu. (Fe''' site division assumed in both cases.)
PIRQUITASITE (pirukitasu-koh)
Hokkaido: In the Sorachi vein of the Toyoha mine, with other tin sulfosalts.
PLANERITE (puraneru-seki)
Kouchi: At Toyoda, with wavellite (qv), variscite, cacoxenite, quartz, vermiculite and Fe hydroxides, in chert altered by acid supergene water from decomposing pyrite.
Tochigi: Fubasami clay mine.
"PLATINUM" (shizen-hakkin)
(True native "platinum" as a mineral species probably does not occur in Japan, and all the material so labelled in collections turns out on analysis to be most commonly isoferroplatinum, less commonly tetraferroplatinum or other PGM minerals.)
Gumma: Nuggets of native platinum allegedly occur in river gravel derived from peridotite (wehrlite) and serpentine near Mayama, but this needs confirmation and might have been a misidentification of awaruite?
Hokkaido: "Platinum" (most of the material labelled "platinum" from Hokkaido is actually isoferroplatinum or tetraferroplatinum) is found in alluvium at many places in northern Hokkaido, including Horokanai and other places along the Uryuu river; the Teshio river; Yuubari river; Pehchan river, Usotannai and other places in the Esashi district, as a byproduct of gold placering operations. Platinum occurs as flattened grains with stream-worn edges, very rarely nuggets (largest known = 0.637g), tarnished dark grey, in river sand. Associated with gold, cinnabar, magnetite, iridosmine. (Platinum is only 2 to 3% as abundant as the much more common "iridosmine" and is easily distinguished from the latter by its lower hardness, abraded edges and tarnished color. Smaller on average than the "iridosmine" grains.) A platinum grain from Usotannai had a density of 21.509, so may be true platinum. Reported from Toikambetsu.
Niigata: Very minute grains, with magnetite and gold in sand from Nishi-Mikawa. Also in the Sasagawa. (same place??)
PLOMBIERITE (puronbieru-seki)
Kanagawa: As white scaly masses to 1.5cm, as a late-stage product associated with tobermorite, in monticellite-vesuvianite-wollastonite-calcite skarn in limestone contact-metasomatosed by a tonalite intrusion at Hohkizawa. And similarly at Nishi-Tanzawa, associated with brown vesuvianite crystals.
Okayama: In tobermorite-apophyllite-plombierite-calcite skarn at Fuka, and with clinotobermorite in gehlenite-spurrite skarn.
POLLUCITE (porukusu-seki)
Fukuoka: Very sodian pollucite (62.5% pollucite molecule) occurs as nondescript white masses which long went unrecognized, associated with similar-looking albite, and pink elbaite, in a lepidolite-rich pegmatite in biotite granite at Nagatare-yama.
Ibaragi: Chalky white, ugly pollucite masses to 40cm from Myohkensan, sometimes with spodumene, is widely distributed in japanese collections, apparently all broken from a single large boulder.
POLYBASITE (zatsu-ginkoh)
Akita: Not uncommon as small tabular hexagonal xls in vugs in a quartz vein of banded texture at the Innai mine. (The black bands consist of fine-grained acanthite, pyrargyrite and other sulfides.) Also at the Hassei mine.
Gifu: Tabular xls with apophyllite xls in vugs in hedenbergite skarn in the Kamioka Pb-Zn-Ag mine.
Kagoshima: Polybasite was one of the main ore minerals in ginguro-type ore in the Arakawa tunnel in MitsubishiÕs Kushikino mine. Sometimes with micro-inclusions of naumannite.
Shizuoka: With acanthite at the Seikoshi mine. Also at the Toi mine.
POLYDYMITE (porijimu-koh)
Gumma: Cobaltoan polydymite, disseminated mainly in serpentine, was exploited for cobalt and nickel at the Tano mine.
Hokkaido: Horoman mine. (Qv also Siegenite.)
Mie: In a small body of Cu-Ni mineralization in serpentine on Sugashima.
POLYLITHIONITE (pori-rishia-unmo)
(See also under "Lepidolite" for undetermined members of the series.)
Fukuoka: Pale violet-pink, massive aggregates of "lepidolite" lamellae are abundant in pegmatite in biotite-granite at Nagatare-yama, associated with minor elbaite, montebrasite, pollucite and petalite. Analyses confirm that both polylithionite and trilithionite are present here. Sometimes as spheroidal aggregates to 4cm across (similar to the balls from Brazil).
POTARITE (potaro-koh)
Tottori: In thermally metamorphosed dunite from the Inatsumiyama (Inazumiyama) ultramafic complex. Presumably a secondary mineral created after thermal mobilization of Hg. (Arai, S., et al. (1999) Min. Mag. 63, 369-377.)
POTASSIC-LEAKEITE (kari-riku-senseki) (IMA# 2001-049)
Iwate: Potassic-leakeite forms minute red-orange to brownish red prisms and cleavages associated with K-feldspar, serandite, minor suzukiite, and very rare watatsumiite, roscoelite, vanadian aegirine, native copper, chalcopyrite and yarrowite, embedded in massive colorless quartz in pegmatitic veinlets in pinkish metamorphosed manganese ore in the Matsumaezawa (#3) orebody of the Tanohata mine, the type locality for this recently described amphibole. Considerable Na replaces K; Mn replaces Mg; and V replaces Fe'''. Analysis gave (as oxide wt%): Li 1.20, Na 8.73, K 3.10, Mg 7.23, Ca 0.13, Mn'' 7.81, Al 0.44, V 5.52, Fe''' 9.45, Si 55.34, Ti 0.29. (Some of this material is more highly vanadian, and may actually be another new species, the vanadium analogue of potassic-leakeite.) Potassic-leakeite is transparent, pleochroic yellowish brown, pale brown and reddish brown, with vitreous luster, pale brownish yellow streak, perfect cleavage on (110), uneven fracture, hardness about 5, and calculated density of 3.18. (RI 1.672 - 1.692) The prismatic crystals are elongated on the c-axis, with rhombic cross-section, up to 2mm long and 0.2mm thick.
POTASSIC-MAGNESIOSADANAGAITE (kari-kudo-sadanaga-senseki)
Ehime: The type locality for this rare K-Ca-Mg amphibole is uninhabited Myoujin island, where it is found as vitreous dark brown to black, 0.1mm short prisms with perfect cleavage, in skarn in a marble bed. Associated with titaniferous "fassaite" pyroxene, vesuvianite, spinel, titanite, ilmenite, magnetite, apatite and perovskite. (Originally assumed to be the same species as the "co-type locality" mineral from Yuge island described simply as "sadanagaite" (IMA# 1980-027), but this Myoujin island material was later redescribed as "magnesiosadanagaite" (IMA# 1982-102). Since K dominates over Na, the new amphibole nomenclature scheme renamed it "potassic-magnesiosadanagaite", its current name. What are now called true "sadanagaite" (qv) and "magnesiosadanagaite" (qv) do occur elsewhere in Japan.)
POTASSICSADANAGAITE (kari-sadanaga-senseki)
Ehime: This K-Ca-Fe-Al member of the amphibole group forms vitreous dark brown to black, prisms to 1mm, with perfect (110) cleavage, at its type locality, the Yuge limestone quarry on Yuge island, where it is associated with vesuvianite in Al-Ti-Fe-rich skarn in a marble bed. (Originally described simply as "sadanagaite" (IMA# 1980-027) and considered the same species as material from its "co-type locality" of Myoujin island (qv potassic-magnesiosadanagaite). Since K dominates over Na, it has been renamed "potassicsadanagaite". Although of questionable logic, this decision was made to harmonize with the newly IMA accepted amphibole nomenclature scheme.)
Gifu: Nogodani.
POTOSIITE (POTOSIITE-H) (potoshi-koh)
Ouita: Potosiite-H occurs as rare grey metallic, striated flakes and crystals to 3cm x 2cm(!) Size, with pyrite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, stannite, jamesonite and quartz at the Houei tin mine. Mostly as small druses rimming large cubic pyrites. Homogeneous, not zoned. Originally considered to be "franckeite". Also here as hollow tubular (yes, "tubular", not "tabular"!) inclusions in transparent fluorite crystals. (Shimizu, M. et al. (1992) "Potosiite and incaite from the Hoei Mine, Japan", Mineralogy and Petrology, 46, 2, 155-161.)
POUBAITE (pouba-koh)
Shizuoka: Reported from the Kawazu mine, but needs confirmation.
POUGHITE (pau-koh)
Hokkaido: Greenish yellow films with velvety luster, coating cracks in the Namboku-hi vein, with tellurium, at the Teine mine. Also at the Kobetsuzawa gold mine.
Shizuoka: Lemon-yellow coatings on drusy quartz at the Kawazu mine.
PREHNITE (budoh-ishi; budoh-seki)
Ehime: Superb colorless to green spherical crystal groups in Matsuno-cho.
Fukui: Light green crystalline botryoids to 1.5cm in Kanazu-cho.
Hokkaido: With natrolite and analcime as veins traversing monzonite in Hamanaka-cho.
Kanagawa: In the Tanzawa mountains, with pumpellyite and sodian wairakite in Miocene basalt and andesitic tuff breccia thermally metamorphosed by a quartz-diorite intrusion.
Miyazaki: Iwato mine (Toroku district).
Niigata: In a paragenesis with jadeite (qv), albite, zoisite, actinolite and quartz in albitite rock enclosed in brecciated serpentine at Hashidate. On Miyabana beach on the Ohmi seacoast as the second main component of an unusual violet boulder consisting mainly of diaspore. Pale green prehnite-bearing rodingite pebbles are also common on this and neighboring beaches, often mistaken for jadeite.
Okayama: Very small veins associated with white jadeite rock in serpentine at Ohsakabe. A fluorite-prehnite vein cuts across spurrite skarn at Fuka. Also at Kanba.
Saitama: At the Agano mine (metasedimentary Mn ore) (basalt intrusion?).
Shiga: Hiradani.
Shimane: Spheroidal crystal aggregates of ferrian prehnite are intergrown and overgrown by Fe-poor, Al-rich prehnite at Kouragahana. Sometimes aesthetically associated with younger babingtonite and thomsonite.
Shizuoka: Pale green prehnite at Tokura is associated with chabazite xls in vugs in propylitized andesitic tuff. Also at Noaki and at Okuzure.
Yamagata: Crystals occur in vugs in olivine dolerite at Irakawa.
"PRELAUMONTITE" = fully hydrated LAUMONTITE (qv).
PROTOANTHOPHYLLITE (puroto-choku-senseki) (IMA# 2001-065)
Chugoku (Okayama??): In metamorphosed serpentinite in the Tari-Misaka ultrabasic complex.
Iwate: At Hayachine, a piece of the upper part of an ophiolite formed under an Ordovician island arc.
Okayama: The type locality for this (probably widespread) new (2002) polymorph of anthophyllite, which occurs as white needles to 5mm in contact-metamorphosed serpentinite, was a drill core from the dumps of the Takase chromium mine in the Takase ultrabasic complex. Associated with forsterite, talc, serpentine, chlorite, chromian spinel, magnetite, pentlandite, calcite. (The serpentine country rock was thermally altered by a Cretaceous granitic intrusion.) Also reported from "Kamigou-cho" ((same place????)).
PROTOFERROANTHOPHYLLITE (puroto-tetsu-choku-senseki) (IMA# 86-006)
Gifu: A pegmatite in Hirukawa village is a co-type locality for this ferrous iron amphibole species. Light brownish yellow, acicular aggregates to 3mm, with vitreous luster, perfect (210) cleavage. Density 3.61. Some Mn can replace Fe. (May be quite widespread in pegmatites, but can only be definitively recognized by single-crystal X-ray study.)
"PROTOLITHIONITE"
= zinnwaldite or lithian annite or lithian siderophyllite ?????
Aichi: In pegmatite on Aotoriyama.
Fukushima: At Fusamata with reddish feldspar, fergusonite and thorogummite. Also at the Suishouyama pegmatite.
Gifu: Associated with muscovite, feldspar and blue corundum in pneumatolytically altered granite at Yagenyama in the Naegi district. Also at the Ebisu tungsten mine and the Tohgane tungsten mine in the same district. A dark mica variously called "protolithionite" or "Li-siderophyllite" is present abundantly with topaz and quartz in the upper zone of a greisen vein at the Ichiyanagi deposit of the Tohgane mine.
Ibaragi: "Lithian biotite" at the Takatori mine.
PROTOMANGANO-FERRO-ANTHOPHYLLITE (puroto-mangan-tetsu-choku-senseki) (IMA# 86-007)
Fukushima: The type locality for this Mn-Fe amphibole is Suishohyama, where it forms light brownish yellow to whitish, lustrous silky needles in aggregates to 1cm, intimately associated with gruenerite and manganoan fayalite in pegmatite. Has a vitreous luster, perfect (210) cleavage, and density of 3.50. (Perhaps more widespread than presently known, but can only be definitively identified by single-crystal X-ray study.)
Tochigi: Co-type locality at the Nippyo mine, where it forms whitish silky sprays to 7cm(!) long, associated with spessartine, rhodochrosite and pyroxmangite in metamorphosed bedded manganese ore. At nearby Yokone-yama, meta-chert is being mined for its high silica content (active quarry, closed to public). Pods of deep pink manganese ore (pyroxmangite, spessartine, feldspar, etc.) in this chert constitute the only locality for pure protomangano-ferro-anthophyllite, not mixed with other amphiboles. Here it forms light greyish brown to tan sharp angular "crystals" up to 5cm across, although these pseudo-crystals are really interstitial fillings bounded by the faces of large pyroxmangite crystals, and are composed of compact masses of microfibrous protomanganoferroanthophyllite. Also as acicular subparallel aggregates to 1cm.
PSEUDOMALACHITE (rin-kujaku-seki; gi-kujaku-seki)
Akita: Pseudomalachite forms green pseudomorphs after stout prismatic veszelyite crystals, and aggregates in the oxide zone of Pb-Zn-bearing copper ore at the Hisaichi mine. ((see also under libethenite)).
Fukuoka: Dull green botryoidal crusts (botryoids to 2mm) in vugs to 2cm wide, and as narrow fissure fillings extending over a few cm, in massive milky quartz vein in Hakata-ku in Fukuoka city. Has been confused with brochantite.
Hyougo: Reported from Hirano in Kobe city ((= "Oshibedani" libethenite locality?? sic)).
Kyoto: Funaoka mine.
Nara:
Shiga: In Cu-rich skarn exposed in a quarry on Haiyama hill.
PUCHERITE (pucchah-seki)
Fukushima: Brownish red crystals described in 1999 from pegmatite in the Wagu mine.
PUMPELLYITE-(Al) (arumino-panperii-seki)
Gunma: The crystal structure of pumpellyite-(Al) was first described in 1985 using a Kinichi Sakurai specimen from Oonara, Sambagawa; microprobe analyses gave 25.01 to 26.24 wt% Al2O3, and 3.41 to 3.90% Fe2O3 (all Fe expressed as Fe'''). (The final IMA 2005 approval of pumpellyite-(Al) gives a type locality in Belgium, although the species name had already been approved in 1973, and the structure determined on japanese material by 1985.)
Saitama: The most beautiful pumpellyite in Japan is from Asahine in Higashi-Chichibu village (or Tsukikawa-mura?), where it occurs as aggregates of pale green-grey fibres to 1.5cm long, forming a distinct vein to 2cm wide, cutting metagabbro or meta-diabase of the Sambagawa Metamorphic Belt. This area produced the first pumpellyite recorded in Japan. (Listed as pumpellyite-(Mg) in some references.) Analysis corresponds to (Ca 3.875, Na 0.179) (Al 0.800, Mg 0.633, Fe'' 0.396, Fe''' 0.210, Mn 0.017, Ti 0.016) Al 4.0 Si 6.017 O x (OH) 3 (H2O) 1.906 (S. Tsuboi (1936) Jap. Journ. Geol. Geog., 13, 333). Associated with epidote, lawsonite(?), chlorite, actinolite and albite. The pumpellyite can be partially replaced by epidote and actinolite. A somewhat more Fe-rich variety occurs nearby at Wachiba, in augite-bearing chlorite-pumpellyite-stilpnomelane-quartz-albite-hematite schist. Analysis corresponds to (Ca 3.723, Na 0.208, K 0.040) (Al 0.696, Fe''' 0.452, Mg 0.367, Fe'' 0.307, Mn 0.057) Al 4.0 Si 6.078 O x (OH) 3 (H2O) 2.055 (Y. Seki (1958) Jap. Journ. Geol. Geog., 29, 233).
PUMPELLYITE-(Fe2+) (tetsu-panperii-seki)
Hokkaido: Fukuyama.
Shimane: Kouragahana.
Shizuoka: Dark brownish olive-green pumpellyite-(Fe2+) is found at Noaki in vitreous masses resembling the chalcedony-like pumpellyite variety "chlorastrolite". It surrounds plagioclase crystals and porcelanous white tacharanite.
PUMPELLYITE-(Mg) (kudo-panperii-seki)
Aichi: Cr-Ti-bearing pumpellyite-(Mg) (up to 8 and 5.6 wt% oxides of Cr and Ti, respectively) as aggregates of prismatic crystals, probably pseudomorphs after Cr-rich spinel, was found in a metagabbro pebble from late Miocene alluvium near Toyoura, associated with chlorite, albite, rutile and non-chromian pumpellyite.
Hiroshima: Pumpellyite (-Mg?) occurs with alkali-amphibole and chlorite in blueschist in serpentinite of the Tari-Misaka ultrabasic complex at Mochimaru.
Hokkaido: Mn-bearing pumpellyite-(Mg) occurs with okhotskite in hematite ore at the Kokuriki mine.
Kanagawa: Dainichi mine.
Mie: Widespread in mixtures with albite, as pseudomorphs after plagioclase in the 6km x 500m Asama-gadake layered gabbro-peridotite intrusion, associated with chlorite, olivine, clinozoisite and grossular. In chlorite-pumpellyite-actinolite-quartz-albite schist at Toba, Shinsen-mura, with an analysis corresponding to (Ca 3.939, Na 0.148, K 0.021) (Mg 0.854, Al 0.442, Fe'' 0.292, Fe''' 0.266, Mn'' 0.067) Al 4.0 Si 6.099 O x (OH) 3 (H2O) 2.005 apfu (on the basis of 28 O-OH-H2O) (Y. Seki (1958) Jap. Journ. Geol. Geog., 29, 233). (NB: This is also the type locality for the related species julgoldite-(Mg).)
Saitama: Higashi-Chichibu-mura (qv Pumpellyite-(Al).)
PUMPELLYITE-(Mn2+) (mangan-panperii-seki)
Yamanashi: The type locality for this manganese member of the pumpellyite group is the Ochiai mine, where it occurs as light greyish pink to pink to brownish pink crystals to 0.1mm, with vitreous luster and one perfect cleavage direction, forming light pink fine-grained veinlets associated with braunite, caryopilite, quartz, johannsenite and rhodochrosite, formed at relatively low temperature in metamorphic manganese ore.
(Other pumpellyite localities - need classification as to dominant cations:)
Hokkaido: Pumpellyite is associated with jadeite as the main components of metagabbro in the Kamuikotan metamorphic belt (presumably associated with the Kamuikotan ultrabasic (serpentine) in NW Hokkaido.)
Iwate: Sarusawa.
Kanagawa: Yumotodaira.
Niigata: Common in basic schists of the lawsonite-pumpellyite-epidote-glaucophane facies in the Ohmi district, but absent from the chlorite zone.
Okayama: Kamba.
Saitama: With epidote, glaucophane, stilpnomelane, piemontite, chlorite, albite and lawsonite, in greenstones and schistose pyroclastics associated with chert in Umezono.
("Pumpellyite" is reported with jadeite as the main components in a metagabbro in the Sanbagawa metamorphic belt. Pumpellyite-Al or -Mg??? (Proc. Jap. Acad. (1959) 35, 137)
PYRARGYRITE (nohkoh-ginkoh)
Akita: At the Innai mine, fine-grained pyrargyrite mixed with pyrite, electrum and stephanite forms black bands in epithermal quartz veins. Individual crystals are tiny, but can be perfect short or long prisms, with rough dull basal face.
Gifu: Kamioka mine.
Hokkaido: Small granular xls occur in small drusy cavities in crystalline quartz in an epithermal gold-silver-bearing quartz vein at the Sanru mine. In rhodochrosite gangue at the Yakumo silver mine, and similarly at the Inakuraishi mine. With diaphorite, Ag-rich tetrahedrite and galena in the Sorachi and Soya veins at the Toyoha mine, and also in a paragenesis with hocartite and laforetite.
Hyougo: The most beautiful japanese pyrargyrites come from Mikobata, where blood-red crystals to 4mm, resembling cinnabar, occur in quartz veins. As massive aggregates, rarely crystallized, with sphalerite and fluorite, filling fractures or interstices of a crystalline quartz vein in the xenothermal polymetallic Kanagase orebody at the Ikuno mine. Also at the Ohmidani mine.
Kagoshima: With electrum, naumannite and aguilarite in black "ginguro" bands in young adularia-quartz veins at the still-active Hishikari mine. Also at the Kushikino silver-gold mine as translucent red, sharp prismatic crystals to 1.5mm long, 0.5mm wide, in vugs in quartz-calcite veins cutting Miocene andesite. Beautiful transparent mm-size prismatic crystals with acanthite and gold at Yamagano ((=Kushikino?????)). Common, intimately intergrown with tetrahedrite or chalcopyrite as veinlets cutting sphalerite at the Yunagano silver-gold mine.
Miyagi: Hosokura lead-zinc mine.
Miyazaki: Common as massive intergrowths with tetrahedrite at the Ouchi silver-antimony mine. Up to 0.01mm, visible only by ore microscopy, with arsenopyrite, cassiterite, sphalerite, at the Matsuo mine.
Ouita: With miargyrite as massive granular aggregates in cavities or fractures of epithermal quartz vein in Bajou gold-silver mine.
Shimane: Rarely as poorly developed crystals, usually massive, at the Ohmori mine. And at the Uha mine.
PYRITE (oh-tekkoh)
Aichi: Striated cubes of about 1cm are abundant at the Awashiro mine, in hydrothermally sericitized Tertiary liparite tuff. Light grey grains disseminated in white quartz, deposited by hot spring activity at the historic Tsugu gold mine, associated with stibnite, cinnabar (qv), sphalerite and galena. Beautiful crystals, but only a few mm in size, at Futto.
Akita: Cubic 2cm pyrite xls occur on quartz xls in cavities of epithermal quartz vein in the Daichi copper mine. Cubic xls averaging 25mm, or pentagonal dodecahedral xls showing (210), (111) and (421) faces, often tarnished brown, in drusy cavities in an epithermal quartz vein at the Saruma mine. Cubes or pyritohedra to 6.5cm in the drusy parts of the Kuroko-type massive sulfide Motoyama orebody of the Kosaka mine. In the Kayakusa section of the Ani mine, beautiful cubes or pyritohedra, some striated, commonly penetration twinned, as single 3 to 4cm xls or aggregates occur in cavities in a pyrite-chalcopyrite-quartz vein; also as abnormally distorted crystals at the Sammai section here. At the Hakusan mine, pyrite forms botryoidal aggregates associated with calcite in cavities in a sphalerite-bearing quartz vein. At the Arakawa mine, beautiful well-developed pyritohedral crystals to 6cm, associated with chalcopyrite, occur as aggregates on quartz xls in vugs in a hematite-chlorite-quartz vein. Octahedral 1cm xls grew on quartz xls in cavities in a quartz vein at the Matsukawa mine. Pyrite at the Washiaimori copper mine forms cuboctahedrons, pentagonal dodecahedrons or botryoidal aggregates, associated with chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, chlorite and calcite in cavities in a chalcopyrite-bearing epithermal chlorite-quartz vein. Pyrite occurs as pentagonal dodecahedra to 4cm, in aesthetic groups, associated with sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite and barite in quartz veins traversing Miocene tuff, mudstone and andesite at the Osarizawa mine. Fine-grained laminated pyrite comprises an unusual rock type, banded with black pyrite-mud mixtures, in the Matsuki mine; interpreted as created by seafloor slumping of unconsolidated stratiform sulfides at the margins of a kuroko-type deposit. Also in the Motoyama deposit of the Hanaoka mine, and at the Nagaki mine.
Aomori: Cubic xls to 1cm, modified by large pyritohedral striations, occur with two generations of quartz xls, one thick and one acicular, at the Oppu mine, where it also occurs as botryoidal or cauliflower-like crusts of colloidal origin. Oppu mine pyrites make beautiful specimens and are among the most common japanese ones seen in collections. Pyrite as cubic xls to 1mm is richly disseminated through bright red jasper known as "spotted pyrite jasper", derived from green tuffs at Imabetsu-machi. Unusual arsenic-rich pyrite is found with marcasite, hauerite, sulfur and kaolinite in acid lacustrine sediments deposited in Osorezan caldera.
Ehime: Cobaltian pyrite in conglomerate in schist was worked for cobalt at the Besshi mine.
Fukuoka: Pyrite was produced commercially at the Yoshiohara mine, along with Cu.
Hokkaido: Banded with beautiful variegated pink rhodochrosite, and other sulphides, at the Ou'e mine and the Yakumo mine. Pyrite veins at the Tsuchiya-Ishizaki mine. Modern anaerobic sediments in Lake Harutori contain minute framboidal pyrite (to about 0.015mm) in wood fragments and other organic debris.
Hyougo: At the Akenobe mine, aggregates of minute pyrite xls occur on drusy quartz xls in cavities in a xenothermal quartz vein. Cubes to 2cm on edge at the Kawakami mine. Cubes with transparent quartz xls in quartz vein cavities in the Kanagase orebody of the Ikuno mine.
Ibaragi: Cubic xls up to 6cm as porphyroblasts in massive pyrite-chalcopyrite ore at the Hitachi mine. Some pyrite here in conglomerate was cobaltian and was worked as cobalt ore.
Ishikawa: Pyritohedra occur at the Yuusenji mine in an epithermal chalcopyrite-chlorite-quartz vein. Pyritohedra and cubes to 3.5cm with chalcopyrite crystals in a quartz vein at the Ogoya Cu-Pb-Zn mine. Small but beautiful crystals with rhodochrosite, galena and chalcopyrite at the Kuratani mine.
Iwate: Pyrite forms isolated octahedra or pyritohedrons to 2cm, associated with andradite, actinolite, hematite and quartz in a contact metasomatosed iron deposit at the Sennin mine. Well-defined cubes or pyritohedra to a few cm showing (100), (111) and (210) faces grew in cavities in Kuroko-type massive sulfide ore with chalcopyrite and quartz at the Tsunatori mine. Coarse-grained pyrite in vugs in a massive marcasite-pyrite-sulfur orebody of near-surface volcanic exhalative origin at the Matsuo mine, with minor native sulfur, cinnabar and livingstonite.
Kouchi: Cobaltian pyrite was exploited in conglomerate in schist at the Shiratshi cobalt mine.
Kyoto: Modified cubes are common in the scheelite-bearing quartz veins on Gyoujayama.
Miyagi: Stalactitic crystal aggregates at the Hosokura mine.
Miyazaki: Pyrite was the main ore mineral at the Tomitaka mine, where it occured as individual euhedral cubes to 8mm, as well as massive fine-grained mesh-like aggregates pseudomorphous after pyrrhotite. Pyrite was also produced commercially at the Makimine mine, along with Cu.
Nagano: Isolated cubes to 1cm at Koganesawa. In cavities with quartz and rhodochrosite crystals in massive rhodochrosite ore at the Ryuujima mine. Beautiful pyritohedrons and cube-pyritohedron combinations to 1.5cm, partially altered to "limonite", are abundant in altered andesite tuff in Takeshi village, where they are locally known as "busseki" stones. (Busseki is an alternative reading of the kanji characters for the village name, Takeshi.) Twinned crystals (spinel law???????? -possible in pyrite??) in pyrite veins at the Hongo mine. Excellent crystals from 2 to 5mm size at Subara.
Nara: Lustrous "floater" cuboctahedrons and twinned octahedrons to 1.5cm were embedded in fine-grained sericite at the Kanba berthierite mine. Also at the Tonomine mine.
Niigata: In a contact metasomatosed hematite deposit at the Akatani mine, beautiful pyrite xls to 4cm show a most unusual tetartohedral habit due to development of only the six alternating faces of a pyritohedron, sometimes in combination with cube faces; simple cubic crystals also occur here. At the Yahiko mine, isolated pyritohedra to 1cm occur in a chalcopyrite-bearing quartz vein. Also at the Iide mine. Framboidal pyrite is found at several places in Niigata prefecture: In modern anaerobic sediments in Mitarase lagoon and Sakata lagoon, minute framboids (0.01-0.02mm) are present in wood fragments and other organic debris. Also as framboids to 0.06mm in Pleistocene sedimentary rocks of the Uonuma Formation in Oguni-machi. Larger framboidal pyrites, up to 0.12mm, exhibiting icosahedral domain structure, are found in Miocene sedimentary rock of the Teradomari Formation at Shiroiwa, and in drill cores from Holocene sedimentary rocks in Kanai-machi and in Shirone city. Unlike other framboidal pyrites, half of those from the Shirone drill core were weakly magnetic due to greigite inclusions.
Okayama: Very pure pyrite was mined in large quantity until recently at the Yanahara mine to produce high-quality magnetic powder for audio tapes.
Okinawa: Sharp striated cubes embedded in the slates of Yanbaru district, often partially oxidized to goethite and maghemite. Framboidal or spheroidal pyrite occurs in Pleistocene mudstone at Udenaha. Individual framboids show icosahedral domain structure and reach about 0.1mm diameter, relatively large for framboids. Pyrite is presently being deposited in the "Jade" seafloor hydrothermal field in the Izena Cauldron as subhedral to euhedral xls, and as pseudomorphs after barite, in actively growing sulfide chimneys.
Ouita: Cubes to 2.5cm, modified by small octahedron faces, formed by pneumatolytic metasomatism in cavities in quartz at the Obira mine. Cubic crystals associated with galena aggregates at Uchinokuchi. Nickeloan pyrite ("bravoite") at the Wakayama mine.
Shimane: At the Udoh mine, complex sharp pyrite crystals occur both as pyritohedra modified by small octahedron faces and as octahedra modified by small pyritohedron faces, with some faces striated, in drusy parts of a Kuroko-type massive sulfide deposit. Also as sharp isolated octahedra, modified by small hexahedral faces, up to 2.5cm, also as crystal aggregates, associated with massive chalcopyrite at the Sagi mine, another Kuroko-type massive sulfide deposit, and in the clay-slate forming the footwall of the orebody.
Shizuoka: Cobaltian pyrite occured in meta-conglomerate at the Kune cobalt mine.
Tochigi: Ashio mine.
Tokushima: Cobalt-bearing pyrite was exploited in conglomerates in schist at the Takakoshi mine and Higashiyama mine.
Tokyo: Pyrite crystals from 1.5 to 4 cm diameter are found on Chichijima and Hahajima in the Ogasawara islands. Large clusters of crystals grow in hot spring mud.
Tottori: Isolated pyritohedra to 5cm, with small octahedron faces, occur in an epithermal copper deposit at the Iwami mine.
Wakayama: Cobaltian pyrite was worked in conglomerate in schist at the Iimori cobalt mine.
Yamanashi: In the pneumatolytic quartz-tungsten veins of the Otome mining district, pyrite crystals are sometimes found as inclusions in quartz crystals, and also partially imbedded in the surfaces of ferberite (qv) pseudomorphs after scheelite.
Rikuchuu (Akita, Iwate, Yamagata): At Toh-hira (Touhira) (in Osarizawa??), pyrites of abnormal habit formed by overdevelopment of the alternate 6 faces of a pentagonal dodecahedron, combined with cube faces. Some faces are striated. This pyrite is slightly Cu-bearing (0.04%).
PYROAURITE (pairoÕohro-seki)
Aichi: In fractures in serpentinite at the Nakauri mine. Nickel-bearing pyroaurite occurs intimately intergrown with its dimorph, sjogrenite (qv); associated with brucite.
Fukuoka: In veinlets with brucite, hydromagnesite and brugnatellite, crossing serpentinite in Sasaguri-machi (Sanno mine and elsewhere).
PYROCHROITE (kimiman-koh)
Aichi: Taguchi mine.
Gumma: As chestnut brown stringers formed by alteration of manganosite in lenses of alleghanyite-rhodochrosite-jacobsite-wiserite ore at the Kurokawa mine. Also at the Mogurazawa mine.
Iwate: At the Noda-Tamagawa mine, a strongly folded, metamorphosed sedimentary Mn deposit, where it constituted one of the main ore minerals in some low-silica portions, associated with manganosite. Pyrochroite-dominant ore here was called "kimiman-ko".
Kyoto: With sonolite in rhodochrosite ore at the Sono mine.
Miyazaki: At the Morowaku mine, with feitknechtite and galaxite.
Nagano: Surrounding manganosite grains in silica-poor rhodochrosite-alleghanyite ore at the Hamayokokawa mine
Shiga: As a minor component of rhodochrosite-sonolite-manganosite ore at the Ioi mine, associated with shigaite. One pyrochroite occurrence here consists of micro-lamellar spherulitic aggregates to 6mm diameter, altering to dark brown feitknechtite, richly disseminated in a pinkish to greyish white matrix.
Tochigi: Kaso mine.
Tokyo: In chert-hosted metasedimentary Mn ore at the Kiyokawa mine.
PYROLUSITE (nan-mangan-koh)
Akita???: Compact or radial aggregates at Numadate "Ugo prov." (Akita????), occasionally as fairly well-developed crystals.
Aomori: In the Hayaseno mine, compact massive aggregates of small prismatic crystals occur in veins or disseminated veinlets in Miocene rhyolite and tuff. Also in vugs as radial groups of acicular crystals and as pseudomorphs after short prismatic manganite crystals. Great masses as cementing matter at the Fukaura mine.
Hokkaido: A major ore mineral in the oxidized rhodochrosite veins of the Imai-Ishizaki mine, associated with porphyritic intrusions along weak zones between Paleozoic and Tertiary rocks. Black, radial-fibrous pyrolusite at Niseunbetsu. Also at the Meppu mine and the Pirika mine.
Iwate: With manjiroite in oxidized rhodonite-tephroite-rhodochrosite ore at the Kohare mine. A rare constituent of folded metamorphosed sedimentary Mn ore at the Nodatamagawa mine. Also at the Ohguchi mine.
Okinawa: (For the supposed pyrolusite from the ex-Yomitan airport, see under "WAD".)
PYROMORPHITE (ryoku-en-koh)
Akita: Groups of pale yellowish green to pale brown transparent, hexagonal prismatic to acicular pyromorphite crystals to 5mm long, occur at the Hisaichi mine on quartz crystals in cavities and fractures of the weathered zone of a pyrite-chlorite-quartz vein. Groups of hexagonal prisms to 3mm long, 2mm thick, associated with fibrous botryoidal malachite in oxide zone fractures of chalcopyrite-pyrite-sphalerite-galena ore at the Arakawa mine. Hexagonal prisms of mm-size at the Kosaka mine. Fractures in the oxide zone of copper-lead-zinc ore at the Kisamori mine produce crusts of olive-green hexagonal prisms to 1cm, terminated by flat bases, some associated with linarite. Tan to light brown to an unusual purple- or violet-brown(!) thorn-like crystals to 2.5cm(!) long, usually loose, sometimes encrusting large amethystine quartz crystals, from the Sugisawa mine, where they can still be collected by diligent collectors. (Re purple pyromorphite growing on amethyst: We can assume the color similarity is mere coincidence!) Also from the Kosugizawa mine (= Sugisawa mine??) and from the Osarizawa mine.
Fukui: In oxidized Zn-Pb ore in hedenbergite-andradite skarn in the Minami-Sennoh orebody of the Nakatatsu mine.
Fukushima: Yellowish green, hexagonal barrel-shaped xls to 1mm occur at the Choumatsu mine in oxidized copper-lead-zinc ore.
Gifu: At various sites in the Kamioka mine (including the Mozumi orebody), in the weathered zone of the contact metasomatosed lead-zinc deposits, as light green to bright emerald green to light yellow, thin hexagonal prisms or barrel-shaped crystals to 7mm, forming druses on limonite. Crusts of 2mm xls are not uncommon. Curved barrel-shaped hexagonal crystals to 1.3cm long, 1cm thick, at Namaridani.
Ishikawa: Pale brown to violet-brown and purplish(!), acicular to prismatic xls to 12mm(!) long at the Ogoya copper-lead-zinc mine, with colorless quartz crystals and limonite in quartz veins filling fractures in rhyolite. Sometimes coating large rough amethyst crystals, and stunning specimens of purplish pyromorphite on coincidentally similarly-colored quartz were still being recovered in 2003.
PYROPE (kuban-zakuro-ishi)
Ehime: With omphacite in eclogite at Akaishi-yama and Higashiakaishiyama in Doi-cho. Red grains and platy masses to several mm across.
PYROPHANITE (pairofan-seki)
(Japan became, in 1955, the 4th country reporting pyrophanite. Previously considered to be a rare mineral, pyrophanite was found to be widely distributed as minute crystals in japanese metamorphosed Mn-rich sedimentary rocks, perhaps mistaken for rutile in the past. The abnormal greenish yellow color sometimes exhibited in transmitted light may be due to Ce. Yellow-green and crimson-red pyrophanites may occur together in the same specimen! Generally less than 0.2mm size, usually only 0.0x mm, but much larger at a few Mn mines. Not attacked by hot 1:1 HCl.)
Aichi: Lustrous black crystals to 1cm at Kutano, with rhodonite and orange spessartine crystals in Mn veins crossing biotite schist in the wall of a road metal quarry. Also with pyroxmangite in silicate-carbonate Mn ore at the Taguchi mine.
Gifu: Greenish yellow to yellowish green, rough hexagonal tabular xls to 0.05mm, dispersed in metasedimentary rhodochrosite-quartz-pyroxmangite ore at the Ajiro mine.
Iwate: Widely disseminated accessory mineral in rhodonite in folded metasedimentary Mn ore at the Noda-Tamagawa mine. Crimson-red to yellowish green blebs up to 0.003 mm; also as pyrophanite veinlets, red to orange in center, with yellowish edges.
Nagano: A rare constituent of bedded rhodochrosite ore at the Hamayokogawa mine. At the "X" mine, numerous minute grains of crimson-red to greenish yellow pyrophanite are included in rhodonite. One euhedral crystal was zoned, a yellowish orange periphery grading into an irregular-shaped red center.
PYROPHYLLITE (yohroh-seki)
(Qv: Kodama, H. (1958) Mineralogical study of some pyrophyllites in Japan. Mineral. J. [Tokyo] 2, 236-244)
Gumma: Whitish, massive friable pyrophyllite-2M, with minor quartz impurity, at Yoji.
Hiroshima: The Shoukouzan mine, a "roseki"-type pyrophyllite deposit in hydrothermally altered Upper Cretaceous dacitic tuff, produces massive very fine-grained, compact to friable, light green to dirty greenish white pyrophyllite (about 80% pyrophyllite-2M, 20% pyrophyllite-1A) associated with granular diaspore xls, minor dickite and corundum (qv), and traces of quartz. Also at the Horou pyrophyllite deposit, with tobelite.
Hokkaido: Fine-grained pyrophyllite and topaz are widely distributed with reddish alunite (qv) as replacement products in the Asari Tenguiwa area.
Nagano: Light blue to pale blue-green, soft friable massive pyrophyllite-2M, is associated with minor anatase at the Honami mine. This pyrophyllite is rather pure; impurities and substitutions being (wt% oxides) Ca 0.38, Mg 0.37, Fe'' 0.12, Fe''' 0.10, Ti 0.04, Na 0.02, K tr, P tr, Mn'' 0.00 (Kodama, 1958; in DHZ). With kaolinite, diaspore, quartz and zunyite (qv) in hypogene acid alteration halo at the Shinyoh mine. White, massive friable pyrophyllite-1A at Bontenyama. Also at the Kanakura mine, the Nagano mine, and the Shiga mine.
Nagasaki: White, very soft, massive to powdery pyrophyllite (about 80% pyrophyllite-2M, 20% pyrophyllite-1A), with quartz impurity, from the Gotoh mine. This pyrophyllite-diaspore deposit may have been formed by the action of magmatic emanation of AlF3 on sandstone (Watanabe 1953).
Okayama: A pyrophyllite deposit, associated with cinnabar and mercury, occurs in altered andesite at Fujino. Nodular balls to 7cm across, known locally as "medama-ishi" ("eyeball stones"), composed of concentric layers of pyrophyllite and fine-grained diaspore, are found in a deposit of light grey massive pyrophyllite formed by hydrothermal alteration of clay at Mitsuishi. With sudoite at the Ohhira-Imazaki mine, forming compact, pearl-white, waxy cryptocrystalline masses with lustrous slickensides and numerous embedded micro-cubes of pyrite.
Tochigi: With dumortierite, sericite and quartz at the Nasu-Roseki mine, in a highly acid-altered argillized halo along a fracture zone in Neogene quartz porphyry.
Yamaguchi: Massive greyish pyrophyllite, gold-bearing, is the host rock at the Agawa mine. Also from the Nabekura mine and the Nako mine.
PYROSMALITE
(NB: Analyzed samples of so-called japanese "pyrosmalite", even those giving pyrosmalite powder XRD patterns, turn out to be Fe-rich manganpyrosmalite (qv), and it is not certain whether true pyrosmalite exists in Japan at all, even though "pyrosmalite" appears on some collection labels.)
PYROSTILPNITE (kasen-ginkoh)
Kagoshima: In the "No. 1" vein of the East Ginguro orebody of the Kushikino silver-gold mine, in quartz-calcite veins in Miocene andesite.
Miyagi: Tenpozan mine.
Miyazaki: Good crystals at Amatsutsumiyama (Amatsutsumi stibnite veins?).
PYROXFERROITE (pairokusufero-seki)
Kyoto: As translucent light brown cleavages to several cm wide from pegmatite at Ohro, and the Ohnari and Isanago mines. Also at Otokoyama.
PYROXMANGITE (pairokusumangan-koh; pairokusumangan-seki)
(Fairly widespread in japanese metamorphosed bedded Mn deposits, where it is often very low in Fe and much closer to end-member composition than other world pyroxmangites. Previously often mistaken for rhodonite.)
Aichi: The worldÕs finest pyroxmangite crystals come from the Taguchi mine, where well-developed, lustrous gemmy ruby-red to rose-red or dark pink, with a purplish tint, complex terminated crystals to 2cm (commonly only 0.2 to 1 mm) occur in open fissures on massive pyroxmangite ore in banded Ryoke metamorphic belt gneiss derived from a metamorphosed Paleozoic bedded manganese deposit. Occasionally cut as gems. Exceptional crystals reach 5cm(!) (Geol. Survey spec., Tsukuba), but any over 2cm are very rare. Crystals are either thick tabular, dominated by the (100) face, or prismatic, elongated on the b-axis, without any strikingly dominant face. Major well-developed faces are (100), (010), (001), (101), (101), (110), (110), (102), (103), (112) and (012); also displaying (112), (120), (130), (203), and minor (012), (023), (013), (014), (014) and (111). Pyroxmangite is the main ore mineral in "siliceous carbonate" Mn ore here, associated with tephroite, rhodochrosite, alleghanyite, spessartine, pyrophanite, "manganophyllite" and hyalophane. Also as the major ore mineral in silicate Mn ore, associated with rhodonite, tephroite, spessartine, manganogrunerite, "manganophyllite" and quartz. Neotocite is another frequent associate. (Not significant in the Taguchi mine's carbonate Mn ores.) Taguchi mine pyroxmangites have become classic specimens, widely distributed in collections. The dumps have been thoroughly worked over by collectors, and are now mostly overgrown, but zealous and foolhardy local collectors still collect pyroxmangite underground in a very dangerous rotting tunnel. Composition (as wt% oxide): Si 45.66, Mn'' 42.46, Fe'' 7.63, Mg 3.59, Ca 0.31, Fe''' 0.29, Na 0.12, Al 0.09, Ti 0.05, P 0.01, water+ nil (H. Haramura analysis, 1957).
Gifu: Euhedral or subhedral, bright rose-pink in small grains, purplish in larger masses, in metasedimentary Mn ore, partly replaced by later carbonate, at the Ajiro mine. Strikingly twinned, the cleavage continuous across the twinning plane. Contains 0.39% FeO, and larger but still minor Mg and Ca replacing Mn, being perhaps the most Mn-rich pyroxmangite analyzed; empirical formula (Mn'' 5.803, Mg 0.132, Ca 0.064, Fe'' 0.042, Na+K 0.011) Si 5.976 O 18. In metasedimentary rhodochrosite-quartz-pyroxmangite ore hosted in grey meta-chert. Constitutes metasedimentary Mn ore, with minor patches of fine-grained carbonate, and cut by younger veinlets of quartz with carbonate, at the Nagashima mine. Also in very fine-grained carbonate ore, with bementite and hausmannite, cut by numerous late-stage veinlets of barite, carbonate, neotocite and bementite.
Hokkaido: Pyroxmangite and manganoan cummingtonite, recrystallized by a granite intrusion, are the main ore minerals at the Tatehira mine. (The pyroxmangite contains minor FeO and CaO, with quite variable MnO and MgO.) With rhodochrosite and rhodonite as a minor gangue mineral in sphalerite-galena-pyrite ore in the Tajima vein of the Toyoha mine.
Iwate: A pegmatite in Iwaizumi-machi was the 2nd locality in Japan for pyroxmangite.
Kumamoto: Pyroxmangite, unusually rich in Mn, at the Ichinomata mine.
Kyoto: The Ohro mine was the first locality in Japan for pyroxmangite, in a pegmatite. As massive, flesh pink bands in finely banded metasedimentary Mn ore, with hausmanite, tephroite and rhodochrosite at the Ashidani mine. Also found at the Kitchoh mine, the Sono mine, and the Tamaiwa mine.
Shiga: Bright pink massive pyroxmangite occurs as 2cm patches in pale brown tephroite at the Kumanohata mine, associated with darker brown caryopilite.
Tochigi: Deep pinkish red subhedral crystals and cleavages up to 30cm(!) across, with interstitial masses of protomanganoferroanthophyllite, in one Mn-rich bed (now worked out) in an active chert quarry on Yokone-yama. Rare exceptional gemmy facetted stones over 3cm across are known from a fabulous find in 2004. Also at the Kaso mine.
Yamaguchi: Twinned pyroxmangite was an important ore mineral at the Renge mine, where it was intergrown with quartz, carbonate and stringers of garnet, with accessory pyrophanite, pyrrhotite, huebnerite and galaxite, in potato-shaped pods up to 4m long in Paleozoic metachert. Purplish pink pyroxmangite at the Kinkou mine is unusually rich in Mn and also is unusual in containing a little Zn (0.23 wt% ZnO); empirical formula (Mn'' 4.877, Mg 0.724, Fe'' 0.135, Ca 0.092, Al 0.055, Fe''' 0.027, Zn 0.021) Si 6.013 O 18. Also at the Kusugi mine and the Takamori mine.
PYRRHOTITE (ji-ryuu-tekkoh)
(NB: Since Morimoto defined the structure and the various polytypes of pyrrhotite (Morimoto et al: (1975) Econ. Geol. 70, 824), using mainly Japanese material, Japan could be considered the "type locality" for several of its individual polytypes.)
Akita: Monoclinic pyrrhotite-4M is found at the Akarimata mine and the Tatemata mine.
Chiba: With ilmenite in amphibolite from the Mineoka metamorphic formation, Kamogawa.
Fukushima: Monoclinic pyrrhotite-4M at the Takatama mine. Graphite was involved in the formation of pyrrhotite at the Yaguki mine, associated with pyrometasomatic copper-rich skarn.
Hokkaido: Primary magmatic pyrrhotite is associated with masses of native copper (qv) in serpentine at the Shizunai mine. In rhodochrosite gangue at the Inakuraishi mine. Nickeloan pyrrhotite was the main ore mineral at the Horoman Ni-Co mine, associated with olivine, siegenite and carrollite in amphibolite gabbro. Also at the Oshirabetsu mine.
Hyougo: Minute pyrrhotite xls are present as inclusions in the nodular masses of nickeline and gersdorffite in serpentinite at the Natsume mine. Also from the Nakaze mine.
Ibaragi: Pyrrhotite formed with cubanite at the Hitachi mine when pyrite-chalcopyrite ore was recrystallized by contact metamorphism around a Cretaceous granitic intrusion into strongly folded amphibolite, biotite-quartz schist and muscovite-quartz schist.
Iwate: Hexagonal pyrrhotite at both the Akagane and Kamaishi mines contains exsolution lamellae of pyrrhotite-2H ("troilite"). The Kamaishi mine also has monoclinic pyrrhotite-4M, as does the Noda-Tamagawa mine.
Kouchi: In Sanbagawa pelitic schists in the Shiraga-yama area.
Kyoto: The Kohmori mine, Suetake, is the type locality for the hexagonal pyrrhotite-11H (previously "pyrrhotite-11C") (Fe10S11), which occurs with pentlandite and cubanite in ultrabasic rock.
Mie: Pyrrhotite-2H ("troilite") in serpentine on Sugashima.
Miyagi: Monoclinic pyrrhotite-4M at the Matsuiwa mine.
Miyazaki: The Makimine mine is the type locality for monoclinic pyrrhotite-6M (previously "pyrrhotite-6C") (Fe11S12). Pyrrhotite-2H ("troilite") also occurs here.
Nagano: Massive aggregates of pyrrhotite showing basal parting, interlaminated with pentlandite, in serpentinized peridotite at the Tenryuu (Aokuzure) nickel mine.
Nagasaki: Pyrrhotite was produced commercially as a byproduct of Pb-Zn ore at the Taishu mine.
Niigata: Pyrrhotite was the dominant mineral in the Zn-Cr-Pb-Bi-bearing copper ore at the Ohkura mine.
Okayama: At the Yoshioka mine, pyrrhotite occurs as metallic bronze, well-crystallized simple hexagonal plates to 1cm diameter in drusy cavities of a calcite-quartz vein cutting chlorite schist and granitic rock. The main adit ("Honko") of the Yanahara mine (qv pyrite) is the type locality for the hexagonal pyrrhotite-5H (previously "pyrrhotite-5C") (Fe9S10). Pyrrhotite-2H ("troilite") also occurs here. At the Bengara mine, pyrrhotite (with minor chalcopyrite) was mined in ancient times for production of red "burnt vitriol" for coloring traditional red laquerware.
Ouita: Pyrrhotite was produced commercially at the Shin-Kiura mine.
Saitama: The Akaiwa ("Red Rock") section of the Chichibu mine is the type locality for the monoclinic pyrrhotite-4M (previously "pyrrhotite-4C") (Fe7S8).
Tochigi: Hexagonal plates to 3cm across, and short hexagonal prisms, on chalcopyrite xls with sphalerite, siderite and apatite in cavities in xenothermal polymetallic chalcopyrite ore at the Ashio mine. Minor amounts occur in rhodonite-manganogrunerite-spessartine ore at the Kyurazawa manganese mine.
Yamaguchi: In pods of metasedimentary Mn ore hosted in metachert at the Renge mine. Occupies small discontinuous fractures in pyroxmangite from pyroxmangite-garnet-carbonate ore; also as small crystals with apatite and garnet in quartz-carbonate-pyroxmangite ore. (Has an XRD pattern similar to troilite but, strangely, the most intense line is a doublet: 2.06-2.05 A.) In scheelite-bearing skarn at the Kagata mine. Also at the Kawayama mine, where it was mined for sulfuric acid, and the Kitabira mine, and Naganobori mine.
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