Locality: Shijiangshan mine (Dashishan mine), Linxi, Linxi Co., Ulanhad League (Chifeng Prefecture), Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China Field of View: 15 mm Specimen analysed by Raman spectroscopy, SEM/EDS and XRD. — Photo: Cesar Menor-Salvan · CC BY 3.0
Olshanskyite
Olshanskyite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the oxides & hydroxide class, with the chemical formula Ca₂[B₃O₃(OH)₆]OH·3H₂O.
It crystallizes in the triclinic crystal system (space group P-1).
Key properties: Mohs hardness 3.5–4; specific gravity 2.19–2.23; Vitreous luster; optically biaxial.
IMA symbol Osh, IMA status: approved, named in 1968.
Found in magnesian skarn (Titovskoye deposit, Russia); produced through alteration of nifontovite and some other anhydrous borate, near gehlenite-spurrite skarn (Fuka, Japan).
It is found associated with Sakhaite, szaibélyite, calcite, “limonite”, quartz (Titovskoye deposit, Russia); nifontovite, frolovite, pentahydroborite, takedaite, sibirskite.
The mineral was named to honor Yakov Iosifovich Ol’shanskii (1912–1958), specialist in physical geochemistry, Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrology, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Moscow.