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VANADINITE BARITE

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A very collectible specimen of Vanadinite Barite.  Two important ore minerals in one, vanadium and barium.   This is a great piece, featuring perfect little hexagonal crystals covering the matrix of white Barite.  Heavy for its size, as you would expect with barium.  A super duper piece at a great price and an essential for any mineral collection.  This Vanadinite Barite specimen displays well.

Location:
Mibladen, Morocco.

Dimensions:
9cm x 6cm x 2.8cm, 192g.

Vanadinite
Lead Chlorovanadate
Pb5(VO4)3Cl

Barite
Barium Sulfate
BaSO4.

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VANADINITE BARITEVANADINITE BARITE

A very collectible specimen of Vanadinite Barite.  Two important ore minerals in one, vanadium and barium.   This is a great piece, featuring perfect little hexagonal crystals covering the matrix of white Barite.  Heavy for its size, as you would expect with barium.  A super duper piece at a great price and an essential for any mineral collection.  This Vanadinite Barite specimen displays well.

Location:
Mibladen, Morocco.

Dimensions:
9cm x 6cm x 2.8cm, 192g.

Barite
Barium Sulfate
BaSO4.

An ore of Barium.  Magnetism: Diamagnetic.  Thermal Behavior: Inverts to another polymorph when heated to 1149°C. Above 1400°C decomposition to barium oxide, Sulphur dioxide and oxygen.  Thermoluminescent at times.  Insoluble in water, acids and bases.  Moderately soluble in hot, concentrated sulfuric acid, due to formation of the hydrogen Sulphate.   Typically found as thick to thin tabular crystals.  Usually in clusters with the crystals growing parallel to one another, or nearly so.   Also as bladed, white masses.

Know Barite

Barite is a common mineral and makes very attractive specimens.  It often is an accessory mineral to other minerals and can make a nice backdrop to brightly colored crystals.  Looks great with Vanadinite Barite specimens. At times bladed or tabular crystals of Barite form a concentric pattern of increasingly larger crystals outward.  With the appearance of a flower and when colored red by iron stains called Desert Roses.

Barite can be confused with other minerals.  Celestite (SrSO4) has the same structure as Barite and forms very similar crystals.  The two are indistinguishable by ordinary methods, but a flame test can distinguish them.  By scrapping the dust of the crystals into a gas flame.  The color of the flame will confirm the identity of the crystal.  If the flame is a pale green it is Barite, but if the flame is red it is Celestite.  The flame test works because the elements barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) react in the flame and produce those colors.

Properties

Color is variable, commonly found colorless or white, also blue, green, yellow and red.
Luster is vitreous.
Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is orthorhombic; 2/m 2/m 2/m
Crystal Habits include bladed crystals that are dominated by two large pinacoid faces top and bottom.  Also small prism faces forming a jutting angle on every side. There are many variations of these faces but the flattened blades and tabular crystals are the most common. If the pinacoid faces become diminished or are absent, the resulting prismatic crystal has a rhombic cross section. Also scaly, lamellar, and even fiberous.
Cleavage is perfect in one direction, less so in another direction.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Hardness is 3 – 3.5
Specific Gravity is approximately 4.5 (heavy for translucent minerals)
Streak is white.

Associated Minerals are numerous but significant associations have been with chalcopyrite, calcite, aragonite.  Also sulfur, pyrite, quartz, vanadinite, cerussite and fluorite among many others.
Other Characteristics: green color in flame test (see above).
Notable Occurances include Oklahoma, Connecticut and Colorado, USA; England and Germany.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, flame test and density.

Check out more Barite for sale here

Vanadinite
Lead Chlorovanadate
Pb5(VO4)3Cl

Vanadinite is a secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of lead bearing deposits.  Almost always found in the oxidation zone of lead deposits.  In arid climates resulting from the alteration of vanadiferous sulphides and silicates of the gangue and wall rocks.

Vanadinite is one of the main industrial ores of the metal vanadium and a minor source of lead.  80% is used as a steel additive.  Vanadium steel alloys are very tough, used for armour plate, axles, tools, piston rods and crankshafts.  Less than 1% of vanadium, and as little chromium, makes steel shock resistant and vibration resistant.  The oxide is used as pigment for ceramics and glass.  Also as a catalyst in producing superconducting magnets.

Know Vanadinite

The mineral Vanadinite shares the same structure with Apatite and the two share similar crystal shapes at times. Vanadinite is part of a chemical series with two other minerals; Pyromorphite (Pb5(PO4)3Cl) and Mimetite (Pb5(AsO4)3Cl).  This series is a little different than most chemical series which involve substitution of cations such as calcium for magnesium.  Instead, this series substitutes its basic chemical units the anion groups phosphate (PO4), arsenate (AsO4) and vanadate (VO4).

Vanadinite is usually red which the other members of this series and apatite group usually are not.  Classic crystal habit is short hexagonal prisms terminated by a pinacoid flat basal face.  These crystals are wider than they are long.  More blade like than the barrel shaped crystals so common to the Apatite Group minerals.  The high luster and deep red color give vanadinite a nice appeal to mineral collectors.

Properties

Color is typically bright red to orange, less commonly gray or brown.
Luster is vitreous to adamantine.
Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is hexagonal; 6/m
Crystal Habit is typically the hexagonal prism with pinacoid as a termination. Rare crystals can have the hexagonal pyramid as a termination.  Also found as rounded masses and crusts.
Cleavage is none.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Hardness is 3.
Specific Gravity is approximately 6.6+ (very heavy for translucent minerals)
Streak is yellowish white.

Associated Minerals are wulfenite, limonite, barite, galena and secondary lead deposit minerals.
Other Characteristics: index of refraction is 2.39 (typically high for lead minerals).
Notable Occurances include Arizona, USA; Mexico; Tsumeb, Nambia; Zambia; and South Africa.
Best Field Indicators are color, crystal habit, high luster and density.

Check out more Vanadinite for sale here

Weight300 g
Dimensions10 × 12 × 8 cm
color

Orange, White

VANADINITE BARITEVANADINITE BARITE

A very collectible specimen of Vanadinite Barite.  Two important ore minerals in one, vanadium and barium.   This is a great piece, featuring perfect little hexagonal crystals covering the matrix of white Barite.  Heavy for its size, as you would expect with barium.  A super duper piece at a great price and an essential for any mineral collection.  This Vanadinite Barite specimen displays well.

Location:
Mibladen, Morocco.

Dimensions:
9cm x 6cm x 2.8cm, 192g.

Vanadinite
Lead Chlorovanadate
Pb5(VO4)3Cl

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