FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Parvin]

Does anybody know if Manganese Carbonate is itself fluorescent or not?

[kushmeja]

I'm not 100% certain, but Manganese Carbonate occurs naturally as Rhodochrosite, and most of the Rhodochrosite that I have does not fluoresce. The Rhodo's I have that do FL most likely have some impurity which is acting as an activator and in turn causing the FL.

[Matt_Zukowski]

A good resource for information on minerals is mindat:
https://www.mindat.org

If you look up rhodochrosite, and then scroll down to the section titled "Other Information," you will see that rhodochrosite does not fluoresce in UV light.

Mindat is an incredible resource for mineral enthusiasts. If you are more generally interested in minerals, you should get to know it.

[Parvin]

Thank you all.

[Charlotte]

MnCO3 as Rhodochrosite typically does not fluoresce. There are exceptions. A minority of specimens that are classic Rhodochrosite (not Manganocalcite) from N'Chwaning mine, South Africa, have been shown to fluoresce rather strongly with short wave length UV.

If there is a high suspicion of Manganocalcite because of the fluorescence, a HCl test may be helpful, as Calcite effervesces strongly and immediately with cold, dilute HCl and Rhodochrosite does not.