Xenotime-(Y)
Mineral YPO4
Also called Xenotime
Take care.
- Radioactive: Keep it in a closed, labelled box away from where people sit or sleep, handle it briefly, wash your hands after, and never grind or cut it.
About it
Small brown square prisms and dipyramids that look like zircon but are softer, and often carry uranium and thorium. Found in granite pegmatites and placers; crystals come from Norway and Brazil.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Phosphate, xenotime group
- Formula
- YPO4
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 4–5
- Specific gravity
- 4.4–5.1
- Streak
- pale brown to white
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy), resinous
- Crystal system
- Tetragonal
- Colours
- yellowish brown, reddish brown, brown, yellow, grey
- Transparency
- translucent, opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- good prismatic; uneven fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.