Zinc-bearing chromite (donathite?) from Norway: a second look

Abstract

SummaryElectron-microprobe analyses of chromites from the Helgeland area, Norway, show that they are all low in zinc. Many chromites show physical properties identical with donathite (anisotropism; polar magnetism) but have cubic lattices. One exception, from Rødøya, shows an unusual deviation from cubic symmetry and that there may exist complex intergrowths of two different tetragonal lattices and a cubic lattice. The similarity between the chromites studied and donathite suggests that the chemistry and crystallography of that mineral may be more complex than is currently accepted.