Black microcrystals of the rare oxide mineral ecandrewsite from the type locality in Australia: Melbourne Rockwell Mine, Little Broken Hill, Yancowinna County, New South Wales, Australia. Ex Vandenbroucke Museum collection from Waregem, Belgium. — Photo: David Hospital · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ecandrewsite
Ecandrewsite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the oxides & hydroxide class, with the chemical formula ZnTiO₃.
It crystallizes in the hexagonal crystal system (space group R-3). It is a member of the Corundum structural group.
Key properties: Dark brown to black streak; Submetallic luster; optically uniaxial.
IMA symbol Ec, IMA status: approved, named in 1978.
Found in quartz-rich metasediments of the amphibolite-granulite facies (Melbourne Rockwell mine, Australia); in a kyanite-bearing pelitic schist (Death Valley, California, USA).
It is found associated with Almandine-spessartine, ferroan gahnite, rutile (Melbourne Rockwell mine, Australia); zincian ilmenite (San Valentin mine, Spain); almandine, kyanite.
The mineral was named to honor Ernest Clayton Andrews (1870–1948), New South Wales government geologist, who mapped the Broken Hill region.