Vanadinite crystals are very simple, but they are still quite stunning. They are hexagonal prisms like quartz, but they don’t have the pointy ends that quartz crystals do. If you will, they are like six-sided cylinders. Vanadinite is of a bright orange-red color and can be translucent or transparent. Vanadinite is very shiny, so shiny that it will sparkle when turned about in the sunlight. Vanadinite’s luster (the rock and mineral-world term for the way a mineral reflects sunlight) is described as adamantine. That means that its luster can be compared to that of a diamond!
Vanadinite has served as an ore of two different metals: lead and vanadium. Lead once had a lot of uses, but today, since we have discovered that it is poisonous, it serves far fewer (read more about the uses of lead in my Dec. 16, 2010 post Galena, Beautifal, but Dangerous) Vanadium is used primarily to strengthen steel by alloying (mixing metals.) Vanadium is added to steel to make it stronger and less likely to rust. Vanadium steels are used to make such things as car parts, tools, and knives. And, as I have suspected for a long time, vanadinite is named for vanadium.
Vanadinite is found in such places as: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Mexico, Scotland, Austria, Zambia, and Morocco. One other very specific source is Custer County, South Dakota. I have done some rock collecting in Custer County, but I did not find any vanadinite while doing so.
Vanadinite has a lot of traits that I find most desirable in a mineral. It is rare, it is beautiful, it contains lesser-known elements in its chemical makeup, and it has some technological uses. No wonder vanadinite is one of my favorites!
No comments:
Post a Comment