University of Silesia in Katowice

An article entitled “Ferrodimolybdenite, FeMo³⁺₂S₄ from Daba-Siwaqa, Jordan – the first natural compound of trivalent molybdenum” has been published in Mineralogical Magazine in Open Access. Ferrodimolybdenite was found in a sulfide nodule from the anomalously high-temperature paralava of the Hatrurim Complex, Jordan. Ferrodimolybdenite is the first natural trivalent molybdenum compound. Only the minerals with Mo⁴⁺ and Mo⁶⁺ and the native molybdenum Mo⁰ are known from meteorites to occur in nature. Ferrodimolybdenite associates with meteorite minerals such as nickelphosphide and tetrataenite, and with the merrillite group mineral karwowskiite, named after our colleague Prof. Lukasz Karwowski. The structure of ferrodimolybdenite consists of two layers, similar to the structural layers in molybdenite, with Fe²⁺ in between. This is why it is called ferro+di+molybdenite. Ferrodimolybdenite has a different crystal structure to its synthetic counterparts and is indicative of the crystallisation conditions commonly realised during meteorite formation. The research on the new mineral was conducted by E.V. Galuskin, I.O. Galuskin, J. Kusz, M. Ksiazek from the University of Silesia and Ye. Vapnik from Ben-Gurion University, Israel and G. Zieliński from PIG-PIB, Warsaw.