Apatite Ca5(PO4)3(F,Cl,OH) is a widespread accessory mineral of alkaline rocks of the Vishnevye Mountains in the Urals. There are small bodies of carbonatites and micaceous rocks, where apatite is a rock-forming mineral. The rocks mostly contain fuorapatite and, locally, apatite-(CaOH). The Cl-bearing apatite is rare. Apatite is enriched in Na2O (up to 1.77 wt. %), REE2O3 (up to 6.98 wt. %) and SrO (up to 3.63 wt. %), locally, P substitutes by S (up to 2.38 wt. % SO3).

Figures 4. Tables 1. References 4.

Key words: apatite, alkaline rock complex, South Urals.

VA. Popov, South Urals Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology UB RAS, Institute of Mineralogy, Miass, Chelyabinsk oblast, 456317 Russia; popov@mineralogy.ru

1. Bonshtedt-Kupletskaya E.M. (1951) [Mineralogy of alkaline pegmatites of the Vishnevye mountains]. Moscow, AN USSR, 175 p. (in Russian)
2. Es’kova E.M., Zhabin A.G., Mukhitdinov G.N. (1964) [Mineralogy and geochemistry of rare elements of the Vishnevye Mountains]. Moscow, Nauka, 320 p. (in Russian)
3. Levin V.I., Ronenson B.M., Samkov V.S., Levina I.A., Sergeev N.S., Kiselev A.P. (1997) [Alkaline-carbonatite complexes of the Urals]. Ekaterinburg, Uralgeolkom, 274 p. (in Russian)
4. Ronenson B.M. (1966) [Origin of miaskites and related rare metal mineralization. Geology of deposits of rare elements]. M., Nedra, is. 28. 174 p. (in Russian)