What is "huttonite"

n. (context mineral English) A monoclinic-prismatic mineral containing oxygen, silicon, and thorium.

Huttonite is a thorium nesosilicate mineral with the chemical formula and which crystallizes in the monoclinic system. It is dimorphous with tetragonal thorite, and isostructual with monazite. An uncommon mineral, huttonite forms transparent or translucent cream–colored crystals. It was first identified in samples of beach sands from the West Coast region of New Zealand by the mineralogist Colin Osborne Hutton (1910–1971). Owing to its rarity, huttonite is not an industrially useful mineral.