Wardite Locality: Rapid Creek , Dawson Mining District, Yukon Territory , Canada — Photo: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wardite
A sodium-aluminium phosphate crystallizing in the rare tetragonal-trapezohedral class.
Intro adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Wardite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the phosphate class, with the chemical formula NaAl₃(PO₄)₂(OH)₄·2H₂O.
It crystallizes in the tetragonal crystal system (space group P4_12_12). It is a member of the Wardite structural group.
Key properties: Mohs hardness 5; specific gravity 2.81–2.87; Vitreous luster; refractive index 1.595; optically uniaxial.
IMA symbol Wd, grandfathered status — known before the IMA’s founding, named in 1896.
A component of low-temperature phosphatic nodules; an uncommon species in complex zoned pegmatites.
It is found associated with Variscite, millisite, crandallite (Little Green Monster mine, Utah, USA); ferrisicklerite, mitridatite, whitlockite, montgomeryite, fairfieldite.
The mineral was named to honor Henry Augustus Ward (1834–1906), American collector and dealer in natural history objects (Ward’s Natural Science Establishment) Rochester, New York, USA.