Muchuanite, a new water-bearing molybdenum sulphide mineral, was discovered in aseries of molybdenum-bearing feldspathic quartz-sandstone of the Jurassic system,Sichuan Province, China. Muchuanite is darkly powdery and very finely sealy with specific gravity=5.01(meas.) and 5.10(ealc.),and microhardness=16-35 kg/mm^3.Optically,it is nniaxial(-),Refrative index in sir Rs=26.6-29.5%,Rp=12.3-14.2%,colour index X=0.3114,Y=0.37848,λd=566mμ,Pe=14.4%.The chemical composition of muchuanite is given as follows;Mo 52.88,54.20;S 37.34 36.00;Fe n.d.,2.2;Si n.d.,0.5; H2O^+ 6.03,5.95;H2O^- 2.07,.00;total 98.59,99.85.Chemical and electron microprobe analyses gave the following formuls;MoS2,0.5H2O.Muchuanite is trigonal with space group C3^1=P3ml,unitcell parameters α=3.16A,c=43.60A,v=377.09A,z=7,and unit-cell containing 3.5 water molecules.The strongest lines given by X-ray diffraction pattern(d,A,intensity hkl)are 6.013(10,0.0.7);2.677(8.0.0.16);2.257(7,0.0.19);1.567(7,1.1.3);1.523(7,0.0.28);1.096(3,1.1.28);1.021(3,0.0.42).Muchuanite is syngenetic with feldspathic quartz sandstone.The mineral is named after the locality where it was discovered,i.e.Muchuan County in Sichuan Province.
