Identification Help (Native Bismuth)

Looks like Skutterudite to me!

My first thought at seeing the pictures was galena.

-Rowan Lytle

son: -picks up huge loose amethyst cluster- "Is this what we're looking for?"
father: "Holy #$@%!

Also thought galena

Regards george

Seriously guys, Galena would never break like that ( has a perfect cubic cleavage) and the color is totally wrong. Check your mineralogy books!

here's a big chunk of Bismuth for comparison... typical tarnish and all



auplater

Thank you for the comparison photo. The stuff I have is definitely not Bismuth, but does in fact look like Skutterudite. The picture attached shows exactly what I see in the vugs as well. I will also attach a picture of the octrahedrenal crystals that come off.

Does nobody ever consider testing with Occam's Razor in cases such as this?

Genuine natural native bismuth, unlabelled, unboxed, in a jar with agates and amber???

Add the fact that it looks NOTHING like either native or manmade bismuth... and I collected semi-metals for a while, have seen lots...

Peter was close when he said Bismuth has a yellowish color, i have seen many Native Bismuths from Wolfram Camp, North Queensland,
& i'd say Bismuth has a light brassy color like is shown with John's specimen.
Yes Bismuth does crystallize, i once saw a specimen in combo with Quartz in the Queensland Mines Dept collection in Brisbane, many years ago.

So the density was just fictional then?

No, the density on the largest piece was just as I said. I'm rerunning the entire test

If the SG isn't fictional than it can't be skutterudite. The Hardness is also off for skutterudite. I think it is a type metal alloy ( Pb,Sb,Sn).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2012 08:01PM by Reiner Mielke.

Edit: Comment no longer relevant.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2012 12:35PM by Evan Johnson.

Hi Mork, how are you and Mindy?
Seriously, Joe, to me no man-made product of native elements (another morphology, generally more cleavaged), no crystallized natural Antimony or Bismuth (really in euhedral crystals too much rare), I see pentagonododecahedral crystals pale gray color with bluish iridescence on the surfaces and I'm thinking to the moroccoan Skutterudite. See you that
[www.mindat.org]
Before you come back on your test, there may be a link with moroccoan minerals? Maybe at the flea market there were other pieces, as Baryte, Vanadinite, Azurite / Malachite, Chalcedony, other Morocco material?

Simone Citon

hi , look man made to me but if it's natural could it be a kind of antimony minerals like senarmontite with bluish irisations of berthierite ?