Formula: LiMnPO4 Orthorhombic
Description:
Lithiophilite forms reddish to yellowish masses, often oxidized dark brown to black in granite pegmatites. It is often asscoiated with a host of other rare phosphate minerals.
FLORENCE COUNTY: Lithiophilite occurs in the complex granite pegmatites in sec. 22 T.39N. R.17E. near Fern. Koehler (198) decribes it as “small honey-brown grains up to 2 mm. in diameter” found throughout the wall and border zones of the lithium-rich pegmatite in the NE NE NW of sec. 22. The grains had a tthin brown to black coating that may contain sicklerite. Falster, Simmons and Moore (1988) also verifed lithiophilite from these pegmatites. They found it in nodules up to 3 cm. across with cores of apatite, and intergrown with fillowite and other minerals.