Ilmenite
Ilmenite is a mineral that is common but hardly ever faceted. Ilmenite is a black, opaque mineral with high density, metallic lustre and is Anisotropic. Faceted gems are attractive due to these characteristics. Ilmenite is one in every of the foremost important ores of the metal titanium. it’s strip-mined as a very important industrial mineral in many deposits throughout the globe. several of these deposits square measure in significant alluvial deposit sands. ilmenite is extremely similar in structure to iron ore and is actually constant as iron ore with roughly half the iron replaced with titanium.
| Category: | Oxide mineral |
| Chemical Formula: | FeTiO3 |
| Crystallography: | Trigonal – Rhombohedral |
| Crystal Habit: | Crystals are thick tabular crystals, with a dominant base, to rhombohedral, to 25 cm. Skeletal, granular, massive; as lamellar exsolutions in hematite or magnetite. |
| Twinning: | Simple on [0001]; lamellar on [1011] |
| Cleavage: | None |
| Fracture: | Conchoidal to Subconchoidal |
| Tenacity: | Brittle |
| Moh’s Hardness: | 5.0 – 6.0 |
| Density: | 4.68 – 4.76 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | None |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Other: | Weakly Magnetic |
| Color: | Iron-Black, Black, Dark Gray with a brownish tint in reflected light |
| Transparency: | Opaque |
| Luster: | Metallic, Sub Metallic |
| Refractive Index: | 2.40 – 2.42 Uniaxial ( – ) Anisotrophic |
| Birefringence: | 0.00 Anisotrophic |
| Dispersion: | n/a |
| Pleochroism: | Weak; dark brown/pinkish brown |
| Anisotrophism: | Strong; color in reflected light: grayish white with brown tint; bireflectance: strong;O = pinkish brown, E = dark brown |
