CERUSSITE BARITE SPECIMEN

CERUSSITE BARITE SPECIMEN

A great collectible Cerussite Barite Specimen.  Lovely light orange Barite blades on top of clear to grey Cerussite crystals.  One of the less common Moroccan mineral specimens about and an interesting combo specimen for the astute collector.  A heavy specimen for its size as you would expect with these two minerals.  Mounted on perspex for the cabinet.

Dimensions:
8.2cm x 6.1cm x 2.5cm, 202g.

Location:
Mibladen, Morocco.

PbCO3:
Lead Carbonate.

Cerussite is a popular collection mineral.  It is famous for its great sparkle, great density and amazing twinned crystals.  Cerussite is a minor ore of lead.  It has a very high luster due mostly to the lead content.  Just as leaded crystal glass sparkles more brilliantly because of its lead content, so too does Cerussite.  The lead raises the index or refraction of Cerussite to just over 2.07.  Lead is also responsible for its increased specific gravity.  Cerussite has one of the highest densities for a transparent mineral.  It is over six and a half times as dense as water.  Most rocks and minerals average only around three times the density of water.

Barite: BaSO_4.

An ore of Barium.  Barite makes very attractive specimens. It often is an accessory to other minerals and can make a nice backdrop to brightly coloured crystals. At times bladed or tabular crystals of Barite form a concentric pattern of increasingly larger crystals outward. This has the appearance of a flower and when colored red by iron stains, these formations are called “Desert Roses”.