THE MINERAL SCORZALITE

  • Chemistry: (Fe, Mg)Al2(PO4)2(OH)2, Iron Magnesium Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide.
  • Class: Phosphates
  • Uses: mineral specimens and ornamental stone.
  • Specimens

Scorzalite is a rare phosphate mineral. It was only recognized as a distinct mineral in the last 50 years. Scorzalite is in a solid solution series with the mineral lazulite. A solid solution series is a set of two or more minerals that have a couple of elements that substitute freely for each other. The lazulite-scorzalite series ranges from the magnesium rich lazulite to the iron rich scorzalite. The rarer scorzalite does not differ appreciably, except that it tends to be darker, less transparent and denser than lazulite.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Color is dark azure-blue.
  • Luster is vitreous to dull.
  • Transparency: Specimens are translucent.
  • Crystal System: is monoclinic; 2/m
  • Crystal Habits include a dipyramidal form that comes close to looking like a distorted octahedron, usually flattened to the point of being a tabular crystal. Also granular and massive.
  • Cleavage is distinct in one direction.
  • Fracture is uneven.
  • Hardness is 6.
  • Specific Gravity is approximately 3.4 (above average for translucent minerals).
  • Streak is pale blue.
  • Associated Minerals are quartz, rutile, kyanite, andalusite, garnets, muscovite, corundum, wardite, brazilianite and siderite.
  • Other Characteristics: Only slightly soluable in warm hydrochloric acid.
  • Notable Occurrences: Menas Gerias, Brazil and most localities that contain lazulite will have some crystals of scorzalite.
  • Best Field Indicators: are dark blue color, poor reaction to acids, crystal habit, slightly higher density than lazulite, associations and localities.
SCORZALITE specimens:
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SCORZALITE specimen scz-1
$ 25.00
Dims: 1.9 x 1.1 x 0.4" (4.8 x 2.7 x 1.1 cm)
Wt: 11 g
Victory Pegmatite, Custer County, South Dakota, U.S.A.
Several broken pieces of crystalline Scorzalite are embedded in the pegmatite base of this small hand specimen. These pieces are heavily damaged, and only one appears to show the outline of a monoclinic crystal. All have the standard deep, azure-blue coloration and a dull pearly or waxy luster, and are essentially opaque. A large muscovite blade accompanies the Scorzalite.
no photo
scz-1 ($ 25.00)
Victory Pegmatite, Custer County, South Dakota, U.S.A.
SCORZALITE specimen scz-2
$ 25.00
Dims: 1.06x0.86x0.57" (2.70x2.18x1.45cm)
Wt: 0.22oz (6.15g)
Halsjoberg, Sweden
This pretty little thumbnail displays deep blue scorzalite crystals and a brown mineral in a matrix of the rare mineral trolleite. The scorzalite crystals are deep blue, visible on two sides of the specimen, and are largely obscured by a coating of trolleite. The scorzalite crystals show no indications of crystal form. The host trolleite is a mass of tiny crystals which are individually vitreous, transparent, and looking very much like aquamarine in color. There is also quite a bit of the brown mineral present. It has an adamantine luster, brown color color with orange-yellow highlights, and is at least translucent and possibly transparent in thin sections. It looks very much like spessartine garnet to me, although I have seen other specimens from this local where the brown patches were described as rutile. This certainly does not look like any rutile I have seen.
no photo
scz-2 ($ 25.00)
Halsjoberg, Sweden

 


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