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Béhierite is a very rare borate mineral,[2] and the tantalum endmember of a (Nb,Ta)BO4 solid solution series formed with schiavinatoite, its niobium analogue.[4][3]
Béhierite is also one of the most simple tantalum minerals. It contains simple tetrahedral borate anions, instead of more common among minerals, planar BO3 groups. Both have zircon-type structure (tetragonal, space group I41/amd) and are found in pegmatites.[3] Béhierite and holtite are minerals with essential tantalum and boron.[5]
Béhierite was named for Jean Béhier (1903–1965), who discovered the mineral in 1959, as a French mineralogist, active in the Service Géologique, on the island of Madagascar.[3]
Béhierite occurs in granitic pegmatites in Manjaka and Antsongombato, Madagascar. Associated minerals are albite, manganese-bearing apatite-group mineral, lepidolite, elbaite or elbaite–liddicoatite, feldspar, pollucite, quartz, rhodizite, and schiavinatoite.[2]
Crystal structure of synthetic TaBO4 was refined by Range et al. (1996).[6] As béhierite is analogous to schiavinatoite, their crystal structures are expected to be similar.[7]