Please help ID - Thank you

Found this on the road side in Haparanda, Sweden.

It has a streak of black on a porcelin tile.

The photos give a bluey colour but it is similar to Aluminium foil colour and has a shiney luster to it. There are also long crystals (photo 3) which under a x8 magnification some appear flat on outer surface, whilst others appear botroydal. The peice also appears to have botroydal under x8. Also, there appears to be a slight tarnish to parts of it as well (photo 1).

It feels slightly heavier than a similar sized peice of quartz.

A scratch test with a stainless steel blade gave no mark.

I did my garlic test with the hammer and no smell, also no mark.... mm! It was a small hit though.

As I had no idea on this peice, I went through my Mineraalit ja jalokivet and came across Pyrolusiitti (MnO2) which I looked up on here - there are similarities to it as in colour/crystal alignment but no mention of a location in Northern Scandinavia.

I haven't the foggyest, BUT I know you guys will know! Please help me ID this.

Many thanks.

Claire



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2012 10:05PM by claire Brimson.

The blue colour throws me off. It could be a slag or some black mineral.

Claire,
My first thought was skutterudite but I don't see it being found in the Haparanda Region and the surface doesn't look quite right. You might be on to something with pyrolusite (pyrolusiitti), although if you say it feels slightly heavier than quartz, I don't know of too many metallics that fit that description other than maybe a metallic-looking slag which Rob suggested.

Interesting piece none the less!

Hi Claire,

It reminds me of massive Löllingite. The color, streak and hardness would fit but it could be something else as well.

Ron

Lollingite would be make the mineral significantly heavier than a similarly sized piece of quartz.

Thank you for all your thoughts on this mineral, it is appriciated.

I have carried out a weight test - it is a field test only!

Photo 1 shows it. A length of 1cm wide elastic attached to a man-size handacheif (?) knotted with an overhand knot and 2 lines drawn just above the knot and at the top end. A small tape measure hanging next to it.

My starting measurement (empty) from line to line was 35.6cm.

My 3 rocks/minerals of similar size are shown in photo 2 (rose quartz; specimen; aventurine)

Each peice was measured according to the stretch in elastic. Results are below:

Rose Quartz - 36.4cm. Difference from starting measurement is 0.8cm
Specimen - 36.6cm. Difference from starting measurement is 1cm
Aventurine - 37.1cm. Difference from starting measurement is 1.5cm

I hope this helps in some way.

Also, the photos I took last night were taken in midnight sun! Light waves change the colour! I have subsequently taken a few more and have posted 1, will post more below.

Many thanks.

Claire

Hi Claire,

Have you checked to see if the specimen is attracted to a magnet? Also, image 046.JPG seems to show a brown cast, is this the correct color? You may need to accurately measure the specific gravity to narrow this down. There are some fairly simple methods to do this if it's important to you. This thread outlines some fairly simple methods you might like to try. [www.mindat.org] Good luck with it.

Ron

Hi Ronald.

Many thanks for the thread on measuring SG, unfortunately I am in student accommodation and there are no scales, also, I have just finished my hospital placement so no longer have access to anything, I will have scales in about 2 weeks tho!

The brown cast is some sort of very slight tarnish effect (image 038), no as dark as image 046 shows. I have just checked it with a small magnet, it is not magnetic. Thank you for pointing out to check this :)

I have included some more images which show the long crystals I mentioned earlier in the above post (image 015). Also, I think that the botroydal effect could maybe be small crystals?? (image 037).

I have looked at the Löllingite section and also the Skutterudiitte, I agree it does not really look like Skutterudiitti but for Löllingite ID 82148 has similar long crystal shape and also small crystal shape are similar; ID 39218 has a similar reddish colour tarnish and yellow colour tarnish as well, though on the specimen there is not alot of tarnishing. Also, I have scrolled through the pyrolusiite images and some of the crystal shapes are also similar. It could be slag but then would slag have difined crystals in it? I don't know.

I don't know if this helps, but the road I found it on was Highway 99 coming down from Swedish Lappland (Northern). I don't know if there are any mines up in the high Northern region.

Thank you for your help.

Claire



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2012 05:33PM by claire Brimson.