Anapaite Locality: Kerch peninsula (Kertch peninsula), Crimea peninsula, Crimea Oblast', Ukraine ( Locality at mindat.org ) Size: 5.0 x 3.7 x 3.1 cm. Anapaite for some reason is an extremely rare iron phosphate, despite the fact that iron phosphates are so rich and abundant in other localities. In particular, I find it odd that here the anapaite occurs in a zone different from where vivianite, the more common phosphate, also can be found. Yet it does not seem to occur in good crystals at other major vivianite localities, in different layers or otherwise. I cannot recall a single Kerch specimen showing the two grown together in the same pocket, for that matter. In any case, the mineral is beautiful on its own merit, and here we have a surprisingly rich growth of anapaite in a cavity in gossan matrix. The minute yellow mineral in association is baryte. — Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0
Anapaite
A calcium-iron phosphate that grows in cavities of fossil-bearing sedimentary rock, and occasionally in phosphate-rich iron ores and pegmatites.
Intro adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Anapaite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the phosphate class, with the chemical formula Ca₂Fe²⁺(PO₄)₂·4H₂O.
It crystallizes in the triclinic crystal system (space group P-1).
Key properties: Mohs hardness 3.5; specific gravity 2.816; White streak; Vitreous luster; refractive index 1.621; optically biaxial.
IMA symbol Anp, grandfathered status — known before the IMA’s founding, named in 1902.
Found in oolitic iron ore, and in the stems of fossil trees (Anapa, Russia); in lacustrine sediments.
It is found associated with Fairfieldite, vivianite, siderite.
The name refers to its first discovery near Anapa, Russia.