Kinoite Locality: Christmas Mine (Red Bird shafts; Inspiration Mine; Hackberry shafts), Christmas , Christmas area, Banner District, Dripping Spring Mts, Gila County , Arizona , USA Size: 7.6×70×3.5 cm. — Photo: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kinoite
A scarce light-blue copper silicate — transparent to translucent monoclinic crystals prized by collectors.
Intro adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Kinoite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the silicate class, with the chemical formula Ca₂Cu₂Si₃O₁₀·2H₂O.
It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system (space group P2_1/m).
Key properties: Mohs hardness 4–5; specific gravity 3.16; refractive index 1.66; optically biaxial.
IMA symbol Kin, IMA status: approved, named in 1969.
Found in vugs and veinlets in skarn (Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, USA); in amygdules in basaltic lava flows (Calumet, Michigan, USA).
It is found associated with Apophyllite, copper (Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, USA); quartz, calcite, copper, silver, epidote, pumpellyite, chlorite (Calumet, Michigan, USA).
The name refers to Fr. Eusebio Francisco Kino (1645–1711), Jesuit pioneer of the Sonora-Arizona- California frontier.