Hectorite is a rare soft, greasy, white clay mineral with a chemical formula of Na0.3(Mg,Li)3Si4O10(OH)2.[2]
Hectorite was first described in 1941 and named for an occurrence in the United States near Hector (in San Bernardino County, California,[4] 30 miles east of Barstow.) Hectorite occurs with bentonite as an alteration product of clinoptilolite from volcanic ash and tuff with a high glass content.[2] Hectorite is also found in the beige/brown clay ghassoul, mined in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.[5] A large deposit of hectorite is also found at the Thacker Pass lithium deposit, located within the McDermitt Caldera in Nevada. The Thacker Pass lithium deposit could be a significant source of lithium.[6]
Despite its rarity, it is economically viable as the Hector mine sits over a large deposit of the mineral. Hectorite is mostly used in making cosmetics, but has uses in chemical and other industrial applications, and is a mineral source for refined lithium metal.[7]
^ abcAnthony JW, Bideaux RA, Bladh KW, et al. (1995). "Hectorite" (PDF). Handbook of mineralogy. Tucson, Ariz.: Mineral Data Publishing. ISBN 9780962209734. OCLC 20759166.
^"Hectorite Mineral Data". webmineral.com. Retrieved 3 Apr 2019.
^ abJololyn R (2007). "Hectorite: Mineral information, data and localities". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 3 Apr 2019.
^Benhammou A, Tanouti B, Nibou L, et al. (2009). "Mineralogical and Physicochemical Investigation of Mg-Smectite from Jbel Ghassoul, Morocco". Clays and Clay Minerals. 57 (2): 264–270. Bibcode:2009CCM....57..264B. doi:10.1346/CCMN.2009.0570212. S2CID 95505225.
^Bradley, Dwight C.; Stillings, Lisa L.; Jaskula, Brian W.; Munk, LeeAnn; McCauley, Andrew D. (2017). Lithium, Chapter K of Critical Mineral Resources of the United States—Economic and Environmental Geology and Prospects for Future Supply (PDF) (Report). United States Geological Survey.
^Moores S (2007). "Between a rock and a salt lake". Industrial Minerals. 477: 58–69.
Hectorite is a rare soft, greasy, white clay mineral with a chemical formula of Na0.3(Mg,Li)3Si4O10(OH)2. Hectorite was first described in 1941 and named...
Members of this group include saponite, nontronite, beidellite, and hectorite. Montmorillonite is a subclass of smectite, a 2:1 phyllosilicate mineral...
J, Schoonheydt RA (1988). "Visible spectroscopy of methylene blue on hectorite, laponite B, and barasym in aqueous suspension". Clays and Clay Minerals...
formed by polylithionite and trilithionite. Another source for lithium is hectorite clay, the only active development of which is through the Western Lithium...
suspension while in the bottle. A typical thickener is stearalkonium hectorite. Thickening agents exhibit thixotropy, their solutions are viscous when...
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