A yellowish or brownish mineral, a hydrated iron phosphate, often found as an alteration product in iron-rich rocks.
From Greek 'kakos' (bad) + 'xenos' (guest). Early mineralogists named it this because it was considered an undesirable contamination or 'bad guest' in more valuable mineral specimens.
Cacoxene got its unflattering name because old miners viewed it as a nuisance mineral that stained and contaminated their valuable iron ore—not realizing that studying these 'bad guest' minerals would eventually help modern geologists understand ore formation!
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