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This article documents the discovery of ‘bismuth white’ on three late eighteenth-century portrait miniatures in the Victoria and Albert Museum collections, painted by renowned English artist George Engleheart. Metallic bismuth and bismuth-containing minerals have been known for centuries and were used on various types of artistic production, from German Wismutmalerei to medieval manuscripts and Renaissance paintings. However, until now they had never been documented on portrait miniatures, despite documentary evidence that suggests their use. The Raman analysis of the three miniatures shows that bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl, corresponding to the mineral bismoclite) is present, and XRF data prove that this material was used as a white pigment in its own right. This work is a pilot study: it represents the first step in the rediscovery of bismuth white as an artist’s pigment, and hopes to provide encouragement to other institutions to look deeper in their collections and map out the use of a relatively rare white material which until now had not been detected or documented in fine art objects. Full article

The ore mineralogy of a new promising target of the Aldan–Stanovoy gold province—the Spokoininsky cluster—is considered. Gold mineralization is represented by a volumetric, nonlinear type, unconventional for the region; it is related to elements of fold structures and reverse fault in the enclosing metamorphic basement rocks. Vein-disseminated sulfide–(pyrite)–quartz ores build up deposit-like bodies in beresites from gneisses and granite gneisses and are associated with Mesozoic igneous rocks of subalkaline formations. Mineralization is characterized by polysulfide (Fe-Cu-Pb); gold–bismuth (Au-Bi) and gold–silver–telluride (Au-Ag-Te) mineral types. Different mineral types have their own typomorphic minerals and typochemistry (fineness and impurities) of native gold. The widespread distribution of telluride mineralization and its great importance in the formation of gold mineralization on the Aldan shield is confirmed. The distribution area of bismuth (including tellurium–bismuth) mineralization in the southern part of the Aldan shield, in the zone of influence of the Stanovoy deep fault, has been identified. Full article

The rare bismuth oxychloride, bismoclite (BiOCl), has been identified in the weathered tourmaline–cemented, magmatic–hydrothermal breccia complex at the San Francisco de los Andes Bi–Cu–Au deposit, Argentina. A wide variety of supergene minerals were detected in the oxidized zone, but only preisingerite (Bi₃(AsO₄)₂O(OH)) is intimately associated with bismoclite. Bismuth arsenate is present either as minor accessory phases or as traces in bismoclite-rich samples. This is the first documented occurrence of bismoclite in a porphyry-related, and magmatic–hydrothermal breccia pipe deposit. Bismoclite is interpreted to have formed by weathering of hypogene bismuthinite (Bi₂S₃), which originally occurred with arsenopyrite to cement the breccias. These appear to have reacted with O₂- and HCl-bearing meteoric waters to produce pockets of supergene bismoclite–preisingerite assemblages. Bismoclite samples have been characterized by means of X-ray diffractometry (XRD), geochemistry, petrography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential thermal analysis–thermogravimetry analysis (DTA–TGA) and infrared analysis (IR) providing useful insights and updated information regarding this rare bismuth oxychloride and associated arsenate mineral. The San Francisco de los Andes breccia complex shows similar geometry, morphology and internal organization as those found in traditional magmatic–hydrothermal breccias associated with Cu–Mo porphyry deposits. Bismoclite and preisingerite form due to the presence of hypogene Bi-bearing minerals followed by appropriate supergene conditions. These hypogene minerals commonly occur only as trace phases, or are entirely absent, in porphyry and related magmatic–hydrothermal breccia deposits. The scarcity of hypogene Bi–mineral phases in porphyry and related magmatic–hydrothermal breccia deposits is the main reason why bismoclite has not previously been reported in these types of deposits. The detection of bismoclite as a mineral phase in the oxidized zone of weathered deposits highlights hypogene Bi mineralization at depth, and associated metals. Bismoclite is an insoluble mineral of particular interest in those supergene profiles which have been completely leached out of distinctive, water-soluble phases, such as Cu sulfate minerals, which are diagnostic of Cu mineralization at depth. Consequently, bismoclite could potentially be the only indicator of hypogene and supergene mineralization in lower portions of a bismuth bearing ore deposit. Full article