A new mineral, droninoite, was found in a fragment of a weathered Dronino iron meteorite (which fell near the village of Dronino,
Kasimov district, Ryazan oblast, Russia) as dark green to brown fine-grained (the size of single grains is not larger than
1 μm) segregations up to 0.15 × 1 × 1 mm in size associated with taenite, violarite, troilite, chromite, goethite, lepidocrocite,
nickelbischofite, and amorphous Fe
3+ hydroxides. The mineral was named after its type locality. Aggregates of droninoite are earthy and soft; the Mohs hardness
is 1–1.5. The calculated density is 2.857 g/cm
3. Under a microscope, droninoite is dark gray-green and nonpleochroic. The mean (cooperative for fine-grained aggregate) refractive
index is 1.72(1). The IR spectrum indicates the absence of S O
42− and C O
32− anions. Chemical composition (electron microprobe, partition of total iron into Fe
2+ and Fe
3+ made on the basis of the ratio (Ni + Fe
2+): Fe
3+ = 3: 1; water is calculated from the difference) is as follows, wt %: 36.45 NiO, 12.15 FeO, 17.55 Fe
2O
3, 23.78 H
2O, 13.01 Cl, −O=Cl
2 −2.94, total is 100.00. The empirical formula (
Z = 6) is Ni
2.16Fe
0.752+Fe
0.973+Cl
1.62(OH)
7.10 · 2.28H
2O. The simplified formula is Ni
3Fe
3+Cl(OH)
8 · 2H
2O. Droninoite is trigonal, space group
R
$
\bar 3
$
\bar 3
m,
R3
m, or
R32;
a = 6.206(2),
c = 46.184(18) Å;
V = 1540.4(8) Å
3. The strong reflections in the X-ray powder diffraction pattern [
d, Å (
I, %) (
hkl)] are 7.76(100)(006), 3.88(40)(0.0.12), 2.64(25)(202, 024), 2.32(20)(0.2.10), 1.965(0.2.16). The holotype specimen is deposited
at the Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, registration number 3676/1.
Original Russian Text © N.V. Chukanov, I.V. Pekov, L.A. Levitskaya, A.E. Zadov, 2009, published in Zapiski RMO (Proceedings
of the Russian Mineralogical Society), 2009, Pt. CXXXVII, No. 6, pp. 38–46.
Considered and recommended by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, Russian Mineralogical Society, and Approved
by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, International Mineralogical Association, April 1, 2008, IMA no. 2008-003