Guite (IMA2017-080), Co3O4, is a new mineral species and an important economic mineral found in the Sicomines copper-cobalt mine, located ~11 km southwest of Kolwezi City, Democratic Republic of Congo. The mineral occurs as a granular agglomerate, 50 to 500 μm in size, and is associated closely with heterogenite in a quartz matrix. Guite is opaque, has a dark grey colour with metallic lustre and a black streak. In reflected light microscopy, it is white with no internal reflections. The reflectance values (in air, R in %) are: 27.0 (470 nm); 25.6 (546 nm); 25.2 (589 nm), and 24.6 (650 nm). The average of 20 electron-microprobe analyses is Co 71.53, Cu 0.58, Mn 0.67, Si 0.25, O 26.78, total 99.82 wt.%, corresponding to the empirical formula calculated on the basis of 4 O apfu: (Co2+0.92Cu2+0.02Si4+0.02)Σ0.96(Co3+1.98Mn3+0.03)Σ2.01O4.00, with Co2+ and Co3+ partitioned using charge balance. The ideal formula is Co2+Co3+2O4. Guite is cubic with space group Fd$\bar{3}$m. The unit cell parameters refined from the single crystal X-ray diffraction data are: a = 8.0898(1) Å, V = 529.436(11) Å3 and Z = 8. The calculated density of guite is 6.003 g/cm3. The eight strongest observed powder X-ray diffraction lines [d in Å (I/I0) (hkl)] are: 4.6714 (16.7) (111), 2.8620 (18.4) (220), 2.4399 (100) (311), 2.3348 (10.4) (222), 2.0230 (24.8) (400), 1.5556 (26.3) (511, 333), 1.4296 (37.7) (440) and 1.0524 (10.1) (731, 553). The crystal structure of guite was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and refined to R = 0.0132 for 3748 (69 unique) reflections. Guite has a typical spinel-type structure with Co2+ in tetrahedral coordination with a Co2+–O bonding length of 1.941(1) Å, and Co3+ in octahedral coordination with a Co3+–O bonding length of 1.919(1) Å. The structure is composed of cross-linked framework of chains of Co3+–O6 octahedra sharing the equilateral triangle edges (2.550 Å) in three directions [0 1 1], [1 1 0], [1 0 1] with Co2+ filling the tetrahedral interstices among the chains. Guite is named in honour of Prof. Xiangping Gu (1964–).

Crystals of Co2CO3(OH)2 have been synthesized under ambient conditions, in contrast to hydrothermal methods reported previously. We have developed a simple but efficient methodology to obtain an initial amorphous phase that evolves to a crystalline cobalt hydroxide carbonate after one week of maturation. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that this phase crystallizes in the space group P21/a (a = 12.886(6), b = 9.346(3), c = 3.156(1) Å, β = 110.358(6)°). The platelet morphology of Co2CO3(OH)2 agrees with its lamellar crystal structure. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) reveals that each individual platelet is comprised of nanodomains disoriented with respect to their neighbours. The kinetics and the activation energy (Ea = 6.26 kJ mol–1) of the transformation process have been estimated using the rate constant method. The precipitation of solids leads to a decrease in the cobalt concentration in the solution (∼88%) reaching values of ∼150 ppm, which can be considered a successful reduction from the perspective of water quality. The calcination in air of the synthetized platelets produced exclusively Co3O4. The thermo-X-ray difraction results confirm that Co2CO3(OH)2 is transformed over a small range of temperatures (225–235°C) into pure Co3O4. HRTEM images show that the lamellar nanomorphology is preserved in the Co3O4 phase. Therefore, understanding the crystallization behaviour of Co2CO3(OH)2 can help to minimize environmental problems caused by cobalt pollution and may facilitate the management of methods to obtain phases with specific nanomorphologies used widely in material sciences.