What is "cancrinite"

Cancrinite \Can"cri*nite\, n. [Named after Count Cancrin, a minister of finance in Russia.] (Min.) A mineral occurring in hexagonal crystals, also massive, generally of a yellow color, containing silica, alumina, lime, soda, and carbon dioxide.

n. (context mineral English) Any of a family of feldspathoid minerals that are mixed carbonates and aluminosilicates of sodium and calcium.

Cancrinite is a complex carbonate and silicate of sodium, calcium and aluminium with the formula Na Ca[( C O)| Al SiO]·2 HO. It is classed as a member of the feldspathoid group of minerals; the alkali feldspars that are poor in silica. Yellow, orange, pink, white or even blue, it has a vitreous or pearly luster; a hardness of 5-6 and an uneven conchoidal fracture. It is unusual among the silicate minerals in that it will effervesce with hydrochloric acid due to the associated carbonate ions.

Found originally in 1839 in the Ural Mountains, it is named after Georg von Cancrin, a Russian minister of finance.