FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Donn C.]

Need help in identifying this crystal specimen. Got it many years ago in a small collection I bought. No ID info so I just put it away until now. The crystals about about ½ inch per side. I have some other questions about it as there are strange things going on inside it, but since its extremely difficult to do multiple photos I will have to try and add them later in a reply. The crystal will scratch with steel.

[Joseph DOliveira]

Wulfenite ???

[Bergur_E_Sigurdarson]

Heavily included baryte?

[Matt_Zukowski]

Hard to tell from just photos. Can you demount it and do a specific gravity?

[alfredo]

Looks like barite to me.

[Donn C.]

[John Cesar]

Looks like Magma Mine, Superior, AZ barite.

[alfredo]

I think John has got it! Check these photos here: https://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?loc=14241&min=549
Thanks. I am not familiar with this locality.

[James Catmur]

Try reading this - I hope I have explained how to add multiple photos. There is a knack but it is real easy

https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=19493#19493

[James Catmur]

This might help

https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=38375#38375

[James Catmur]

I tend to agree but a test or two would help confirm it

https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=19487#19487

[Donn C.]

Thanks for the information on the Magma Mine Barite I think that is probably correct. I am in Arizona and the specimen was bought here in Arizona. I looked through the photos and saw a couple that looked very much like mine. Now the question that I have is about the inclusions, which are quite interesting. The surface is covered with small black dots and they appear to have a dendrite like growth down into the crystal. The last photo is the best I can do for a micro-photo but you can see the growths going down into the crystal from the top edge and growing to the right from the left edge. Under high magnification they appear to be a series of spheres growing in a long straight chain. What are the black growth inclusions? With any luck all the photos should should be attached...

[Michael Shaw]

The black spherical inclusions are probably one of the manganese oxides or goethite.

[Pete Richards]

The "dendrites" extending into the barite are more of the same material that forms the dots on the surface. They indicate that the barite and the black material were forming at the same time for the later part of crystal growth. At the end, the black stuff continued to grow for a bit longer, forming the little hemispheres.

This interesting relationship is not uncommon, but is often not noticed.

[James Catmur]

Perfect