Britholite - Encyclopedia

    Class : Phosphates, arsenates, vanadates
    Subclass : Anhydrous phosphates
    Crystal system : Hexagonal
    Chemistry : (Y,Ca)₅(SiO₄,PO₄)₃(OH,F)
    Rarity : Rare

Britholite is a group of 3 minerals : britholite-(Ce), britholite-(La) and britholite-(Y) named after the dominant rare earth element. They are complex silicates in which a number of SiO₄ tetrahedra are replaced by PO₄ tetrahedra. Their names come from the Greek brithos (weight) because of their high densities. These are minerals that are found in pegmatites where they occur in stocky hexagonal prismatic crystals, frequently metamict, hardly reaching 1 cm (although giants of 20 cm are known), and in flattened centimetric masses. They are also found in microcrystals in the vacuoles of certain alkaline lavas. Britholite-(Y) is dark red-brown to black, sometimes light brownish, colorless, bluish or purple, it can alter into bastnäsite or churchite. Britholite-(Ce) can also be pink or green.

Main photo : Fluorbritholite-(Ce) from the In den Dellen quarry, Mendig, Germany © Volker Betz

No twin known for this mineral species.

No fake recorded for this mineral species, but difficult to identify without chemical analysis.