Cuprorivaite and Papagoite from the Messina Mine, Limpopo Province, South Africa

• Published in: Rocks & minerals Vol. 97; no. 2; pp. 134 - 141
• Main Authors: Cairncross, Bruce, Rumsey, Mike S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Taylor & Francis 04.03.2022; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Copper; Crystals; Hematite; Literature reviews; Messina, Antonello da; Minerals; Mining industry; Mountains; Quartz crystals; South Africa
• DOI: 10.1080/00357529.2022.2004512
• ISSN: 0035-7529

The Messina· copper mine in South Africa is well known for attractive quartz crystals that contain a variety of included minerals such as ajoite, copper, epidote, hematite, papagoite, and shattuckite, to name a few (Cairncross 1991; Cairncross and Gutzmer 1995; Cairncross 2016; Mayer and .Moore 2016). One very rare Messina mine copper silicate that has received scant attention is cuprorivaite. This stems from the paucity of specimens, and those that are known appear to have originated from a single specimen at Messina or from a single discovery of limited specimens at Messina mine. In this article, we review the literature on cuprorivaite, the use of CaCuSi4O10 as a synthetic compound, and the intriguing story tracing the discovery and history of the Messina mine specimens.Cuprorivaite is a rare mineral, and currently (July 2021) Mindat.org lists it from only six localities worldwide; South Africa is not one of them: (1) two in Germany, (2) the Ha-trium Formation in the Middle East, (3) the United States [Ajo, Arizona, and (4) Summit Rock, Oregon], and (5) Italy, the type locality of Mt. Vesuvius. In this article we discuss the discovery of cuprorivaite from the Messina mine, now a sixth global locality. Interestingly, Anthony et al. (1995) include Wheal Edward in Cornwall and Messina in their list of localities. We have not been able to substantiate the Wheal Edward reference from any known publication or collection. Because the Messina cuprorivaite analyses have never been published, Anthony et al. (1995) could only have obtained this locality information from the passing comment made by Edgar Mountain in his 1962 South African Journal of Science article or a direct conversation with museum curators who had a Messina sample in their care.