Borate minerals

thumb|The orthoborate anion, a simple borate anion A borate is any of a range of boron oxyanions, anions containing boron and oxygen, such as orthoborate , metaborate , or tetraborate ; or any salt of such anions, such as sodium metaborate, and borax . The name also refers to esters of such anions, such as trimethyl borate .

Painite is a rare borate mineral. It was first found in Myanmar by British mineralogist and gem dealer Arthur C.D. Pain who misidentified it as ruby, until it was discovered as a new gemstone in the 1950s. When it was confirmed as a new mineral species, the mineral was named after him.

Sassolite is a borate mineral, specifically the mineral form of boric acid. It is usually white to gray, and colourless in transmitted light. It can also take on a yellow colour from sulfur impurities, or brown from iron oxides.

thumb|Spectacle bracelet in dumortierite and gold by Cora Sheibani Dumortierite is a fibrous variably colored aluminium boro-silicate mineral, Al7BO3(SiO4)3O3. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system typically forming fibrous aggregates of slender prismatic crystals. The crystals are vitreous and vary in color from brown, blue, and green to more rare violet and pink. Substitution of iron and other tri-valent elements for aluminium results in the color variations. It has a Mohs hardness of 7 and a specific gravity of 3.3 to 3.4. Crystals show pleochroism from red to blue to violet. Dumortier

Jadarite is a white, earthy monoclinic silicate mineral, sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with the chemical formula LiNaSiB3O7(OH). == Discovery and classification ==

Jeremejevite is an aluminium borate mineral with variable fluoride and hydroxide ions. Its chemical formula is . It is considered as one of the rarest, thus one of the most expensive stones. For nearly a century, it was considered as one of the rarest gemstones in the world.

Ludwigite is a magnesium-iron borate mineral: Mg2FeBO5.

Berborite is a beryllium borate mineral with the chemical formula Be2(BO3)(OH,F)·(H2O). It is colorless and leaves a white streak. Its crystals are hexagonal to pyramidal. It is transparent and has vitreous luster. It is not radioactive. Berborite is rated 3 on the Mohs Scale.

Priceite is a white borate mineral. The mineral has been found in places such as Chetco, Oregon, Death Valley, and northwestern Turkey. In 1862 small amounts of this mineral were mined from Chetco, Oregon.

Bakerite is the common name given to hydrated calcium boro-silicate hydroxide, a borosilicate mineral (chemical formula Ca4B4(BO4)(SiO4)3(OH)3·(H2O)) that occurs in volcanic rocks in the Baker, California area. Discredited mineral: IMA2016-A.

Cahnite (Cahnit in German, Cahnita in Spanish, Канит in Russian) is a brittle white or colorless mineral that has perfect cleavage and is usually transparent. It usually forms tetragonal-shaped crystals and it has a hardness of 3 mohs. Cahnite was discovered in the year 1921. It was named Cahnite to honor Lazard Cahn (1865–1940), who was a mineral collector and dealer. It is usually found in the Franklin Mine, in Franklin, New Jersey, but has also been found in Japan as well as in the Vallerano quarries in Rome, Italy. The geological environment that it occurs in is in pegmatites cutting a cha

Homilite is a borosilicate mineral belonging to the gadolinite group of minerals with formula .

Sturmanite is a rare sulfate mineral with the chemical formula Ca6Fe3+2(SO4)2.5(B(OH)4)(OH)12 · 25 H2O. It crystallises in the tetragonal system and it has a Moh's hardness of 2.5. Sturmanite has a bright yellow to amber colour and falls in the ettringite group. It was named after Bozidar Darko Sturman (born 1937), Croatian-Canadian mineralogist and Curator Emeritus of Mineralogy, Royal Ontario Museum.

Nickel–Strunz 9 ed mineral class number 6

Tusionite is a rare colorless to transparent to translucent yellow brown trigonal borate mineral with chemical formula: MnSn(BO3)2. The mineral is composed of 18.86% manganese, 40.76% tin, 7.42% boron, and 32.96% oxygen. It is a late stage hydrothermal mineral and occurs rarely in granite pegmatites in miarolitic cavities.

Warwickite is an iron magnesium titanium borate mineral with the chemical formula or . It occurs as brown to black prismatic orthorhombic crystals which are vitreous and transparent. It has a Mohs hardness of 3 to 4 and a specific gravity of 3.36.

Bonaccordite is a rare mineral discovered in 1974. Its chemical formula is Ni2FeBO5 and it is a mineral of the ludwigite group. It usually crystallizes in long, cylindrical prisms that form within another source. It is named after the area of Bon Accord, where it was first found. There have also been findings of bonaccordite within nuclear plants at multiple companies. It builds up a deposit within the machines and is a very hard mineral to clean out because it is resistant to ordinary techniques.

Searlesite is a sodium borosilicate mineral, with the chemical formula NaBSi2O5(OH)2. It was discovered in 1914 at Searles Lake, California, and was named to honor John W. Searles (16 November 1828 – 7 October 1897), California pioneer, who drilled the well that yielded the first known Searlesite.

Béhierite is a very rare borate mineral, and the tantalum endmember of a solid solution series formed with schiavinatoite, its niobium analogue.

Inderite, also known as lesserite, is a mineral that was named after its source, the Inder lake, near the Inder Mountains in Kazakhstan. The samples were described in English by the soviet mineralogist Boldyreva in 1937. It is a rare secondary mineral but common in salt, potassium and borate deposits.

Azoproite is a rare manganese iron borate mineral with the chemical formula (Mg,Fe)(Fe,Ti,Mg)(BO)O. It was first identified near Lake Baikal, Russia. It was named after the Association pour l'Etude Géologique des Zones Profondes de l'Ecorce Terrestre, whose acronym is AZOPRO in French.

Pinnoite is a magnesium borate mineral with formula: MgB2O(OH)6 or MgB2O4·3(H2O). It crystallizes in the tetragonal crystal system and occurs as colorless to yellow or light green radial fibrous clusters and rarely as short prismatic crystals.

Seamanite, named for discoverer Arthur E. Seaman, is a rare manganese boron phosphate mineral with formula Mn3[B(OH)4](PO4)(OH)2. The yellow to pink mineral occurs as small, needle-shaped crystals. It was first discovered in 1917 from a mine in Iron County, Michigan, United States and identified in 1930. , seamanite is known from four sites in Michigan and South Australia.

Fluoborite has a chemical formula of Mg3(BO3)(F,OH)3. Its name comes from its main chemical components, fluorine and boron. It was first described in 1926.

Canavesite, Mg2(HBO3)(CO3)∙5H2O, is a rare carboborate mineral from the abandoned Brosso mine in Italy. Canavesite is a secondary mineral that occurs due to the weathering of ludwigite-magnetite skarn on the surface of mine walls. The physical properties consist of milky-white rosette-like aggregates of elongated transparent fibers shown in figure one. It has the crystal symmetry of a monoclinic with a diffraction symbol of 2/mP-/-.

Lucchesiite is a new member of tourmaline-group of minerals. Lucchesiite has the formula CaFe3Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3O. It is the calcium and oxygen-analogue of schorl. It has two co-type localizations, one in Czech Republic and the other in Sri Lanka. As the other members of the tourmaline group, it is trigonal.

Tienshanite, named for the Tian Shan Range in Mongolia, is a rare borosilicate mineral, though rock-forming in some parts of its original locality at the Dara-i-Pioz Glacier in Tajikistan. Its formula is extremely complex: .

thumb | right Takedaite is a borate mineral that was found in a mine in Fuka, Okayama Prefecture Japan during a mineralogical survey in the year 1994. During the survey, Kusachi and Henmi reported the occurrence of an unidentified anhydrous borate mineral closely associated with nifontovite, olshanskyite, and calcite. By the year 1994 two other minerals in the borate group M3B2O6 had been identified in nature Mg3B2O6 known as kotoite and Mn3B2O6 known as jimboite. Takedaite has the ideal chemical formula of Ca3B2O6. The mineral has been approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Na

Karlite (kar'-lite) is a silky white to light green orthorhombic borate mineral, not to be confused with tremolite-actinolite. It has a general formula of Mg7(BO3)3(OH)4Cl. Karlite is named in honor of Franz Karl (1918–1972), professor of mineralogy and petrography at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, for his studies of the geology of the eastern Alps.

Perettiite-(Y) is a complex silicate–borate mineral with the formula Y2Mn4FeSi2B8O24. It was first discovered in 2015 by Adolf Peretti of the Gemresearch Swisslab (GRS). It was found as inclusions in a phenakite crystal from Mogok, Myanmar.

Fontarnauite is a relatively recently described, rare sulfate, borate mineral with the chemical formula . It is found in an evaporite boron deposit. It coexists with other evaporite boron minerals, especially probertite. It is monoclinic, crystallizing in the space group P21/c.

Nioboholtite is an extremely rare mineral with the formula (Nb0.6[]0.4)Al6BSi3O18. It is the niobium-rich member of the dumortierite supergroup, and the niobium analogue of holtite of the holtite group. It is one of three quite recently found minerals of this group, the other two being titanoholtite and szklaryite, all coming from the Szklary village near Ząbkowice Śląskie in Poland. They occur in a unique pegmatite. Nioboholtite and schiavinatoite are both minerals with essential niobium and boron.

Schiavinatoite is a very rare borate mineral, and the niobium endmember of a solid solution formed with béhierite.

Tuzlaite is a borate mineral, associated with halides, named after the Tuzla salt mines in Bosnia and Hercegovina. A multitude of rare evaporate minerals have been discovered there, it being the only major evaporate deposit in the Balkans. This mineral has been approved as tuzlaite by the International Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names.