Dickthomssenite

Description

Dickthomssenite has a hardness of 2½ and a specific gravity of 1.96 – 2.09. You probably wouldn’t believe this if it weren’t for your ability to also google it for yourself, but shockingly, Dickthomssenite is named after Richard “Dick” Thomssen, a consulting geologist from Dayton, Nevada, USA.

It’s found as a coating on sandstones in a grand total of six localities worldwide, so far, all pretty much between Moab in Utah and Gateway in Colorado, and has been found associated with Metarossite, Lasalite, and Selenium.

WebMineral shows an assayed specimen contains roughly 60% Oxygen, 29% Vanadium, 7% Magnesium, and 4% Hydrogen, so this would make for a great representation of how Vanadium is found in nature as compared to Vanadinite, if it weren’t for being so rare… An element collector may opt for a cheaper Vanadinite specimen and leave this for a Colorado mineral collector instead.

There’s no Wikipedia page, and WebMineral and Mindat both have little more information on this mineral, which isn’t very surprising, as it was only just approved by the IMA in 2000. In addition, as it’s so rare, be sure to keep your eyes out for a rock like this and you might just be able to make a new discovery!