Minerals

The earth is made of rocks, which are in turn made of minerals.

In this part of the course we'll learn how to identify common
minerals.

In order for something to be classified as a mineral, it must meet

five (5) criterion:
Minerals are:
· 1. Naturally occurring,
· 2. Inorganic,
· 3. Have known chemical compositions
· 4. Have definite physical properties.
5. Are solid
·
They are usually (although not always) crystalline.
 Examples of Minerals
Quartz Calcite
Iron

Hematite Diamond
 How to Identify Minerals: Physical
Properties

Engineers determine the identity of an unknown mineral by

describing its physical properties. They then use a reference
book to find out what mineral has those properties. We will
learn to describe the physical properties.
 COLOUR

Colour is an obvious property, but one which is often unreliable.

Because of the variation in chemistry that is possible for many
minerals, plus the inclusion of trace elements in the crystal
structure which have a characteristic interaction with light and
cause distinctive colours, for many minerals the colour is
highly variable. When the mineral is reduced to powdered
form, which is done by dragging the specimen across an
unglazed porcelain streak plate, this variability disappears,
and we get a consistent result which is reliable. We note that
certain minerals do have a consistent and characteristic
colour.
Hematite
This iron
oxide mineral
exhibits a
number of
different
colours, and
even degrees
of metallic
lustre.

The upper right specimen is distinctly red-brown, and rather dull; the upper left
specimen a somewhat dull gun-metal grey colour, and the lower specimen is quite
shiny and also a gun-metal colour. What property unites these specimens?
STREAK

Streak refers to color of mark left by rubbing mineral

against a streak plate (unglazed porcelain). Streak
does not vary even if color does.
Hematite
A variable
mineral is
consistent in
one regard.

Note that the streak of all three specimens is red-brown, as seen on the unglazed
porcelain streak plates next to each one. Powdering the specimen on such a plate (the
hardness must be less than 7 for this to work) eliminates the variation exhibited by the
larger crystal sizes.
 LUSTRE
Lustre is a qualitative description of the appearance of reflected light from
the specimen. It can be somewhat subjective, and may also depend on the
quality of the specimen and the crystal size. The fundamental subdivision is
into those minerals whose lustre is metallic, having the appearance of
polished metal, and those that are non-metallic, which of course do not.
There is a host of different lustres within the non-metallic category.
Minerals with no lustre are described as dull.
Pyrite has metallic luster
Quartz has nonmetallic luster
Galena +
Dolomite
The contrast
between
metallic and
non-metallic
lustre is
exhibited in
this specimen
from Pine
Point.

From this lead-zinc deposit near Great Slave Lake, metallic galena, highlighted by red
arrows, has been deposited in cavities within the brown, non-metallic dolomite host
rock. The two left arrows point to the same large mass of galena; the right arrows to
smaller masses.
 Hardness................... -
Refers to "scratchability" or resistance to
being scratched. Harder minerals will
scratch softer minerals.
Engineers rank minerals according to
hardness using the Moh's scale
 Hardness depends upon the forces holding
the atoms of the mineral together.
 In 1812, a scientist, F. Moh devised a scale
of hardness into which all minerals can be
placed.
 He selected ten minerals and arranged
them in order so that any one mineral
could be used to scratch only minerals
which are less.
 Diamond is the- hardest natural material,
140 times harder than corundum.
CRYSTAL HABIT

Crystal habit is the shape that crystals of a particular mineral will exhibit
when grown under ideal or favourable conditions. Normally, simultaneous
growth of other crystals of the same or a different mineral will lead to
mutual interference and the development of what are called compromise
boundaries. As the term “habit” suggests, this is not an invariant property,
and one notes that some minerals may exhibit different habits depending on
the conditions and circumstances of growth.
Habit refers to the overall shape of the mineral. Scientists use terms like:
"equant" (3 dimensions of the mineral have about the same length, like a
cube or sphere), “elongate" (one direction is long but the other 2 are short,
like a pencil), or "platy" (one dimension is short, other 2 are long like a
sheet of paper)
Crystal
Habit,
Quartz.
This broken
crystal
demonstrates
part of the
typical habit
of this
mineral.

Under ideal conditions, a quartz crystal grows as a six-sided or hexagonal prism, and
terminates with a set of faces, seen here, that form a hexagonal pyramid.
Cleavage
Many minerals possess a tendency to split easily in certain regular
directions, and yield smooth plane surfaces called cleavage
planes when thus broken.
These special breakage surfaces correspond to zones of weak
bonding in the crystal structure.
To describe cleavage, one must determine the number of unique
cleavage planes (directions) and their angle with respect to each
other (e.g. salt breaks into cubes, with cleavage in 3 directions,
all at 90 degrees)
NO
cleavage
Muscovite
This sheet
silicate has a
single perfect
cleavage,
accounting
for its flaky
nature.

The yellow stars are on parallel cleavage faces that all represent
the same cleavage direction; the red arrows point to places where
that same cleavage could be developed;.
Fracture

The nature of a broken surface of a mineral is known

as fracture.
The break being irregular and independent of
cleavage. It is sometimes characteristic of a mineral
and also, a fresh fracture shows the true colour of a
mineral.
Fracture is described as conchoidal, when the
mineral breaks with a curved surface, e.g. in quartz
and flint. As even when it is flat, as uneven when it
is rough
Tenacity
 The response of a mineral to a hammer below, to cutting
with knife and to bending is described by its tenacity.
 Mineral that can be beaten into new shapes are
malleable, e.g. native metals of gold, silver and copper.
 Most minerals are brittle and fracture when struck with a
hammer.
 A few brittle minerals can be cut with knife and are
described as sectile.
 Flakes of mica can be bent and yet return to their flat
tabular shape when free to do so: they are both flexible
and elastic.
 SPECIFIC GRAVITY
 Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a material to
the density of water at a specified temperature, and therefore
has no units or dimension. It can be determined accurately
using various techniques, and resolution between minerals is
possible to very small differences.
 In practice, in hand specimen it is not possible to resolve most
minerals, whose specific gravity lies in the range of 2.65 to
2.85 or so, but a few minerals are unusually “hefty” (have a
very high specific gravity), and this will be readily detected in
specimens which are unusually heavy for their size.
 For example, a piece of galena (lead ore), with a specific
gravity of 7.4 will feel much heavier than a piece of quartz of a
similar size but with specific gravity of 2.65, reflecting the
way the atoms are packed together.
Other Properties
Some minerals are magnetic (i.e., magnetite)
Some minerals effervesce ("fizz") in dilute acid (calcite)