Auerlite
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Auerlite is a rare North Carolina mineral variety, remarkably rich in thorium dioxide (also known as thoria), named after Carl Auer von Welsbach, the inventor of the Welsbach incandescent gas mantle. It is considered to be a phosphorus bearing variety of thorite.[1]
It was originally described as a hydrous silico-phosphate of thorium, ThO2(SiO2,1/3P2O5)+2H2O, i.e. thorite in which part of the silica is replaced by phosphoric acid. The crystals are tetragonal, lemon-yellow to brown-red in color, and sub-translucent to opaque. The mineral is very brittle; its hardness is 2.5 to 3, and its specific gravity 4.422 to 4.766, the darker crystals having the greatest density.
Analysis gave the following results: —
| H2O | CO2 | SiO2 | P2O5 | ThO2 | Fe2O3 | CaO | MgO | Al2O3 | Total |
| 10.21 | 1.00 | 7.64 | 7.46 | 70.13 | 1.38 | 0.49 | 0.29 | 1.10 | 99.70 |