Brucite
Brucite is a very oxide that is rare that is hardly ever formed as crystals. It is almost always found as fibrous, massive or granular. The crystals that are uncommon usually small and only translucent. Stunning pale crystals that are green been found at Tsumeb, Namibia. Brucite is really a mineral that is not usually used as a mineral specimen but does have some crucial uses that are industrial. It’s an ore that is minor of steel and a supply of magnesia.
Brucite is found in numerous localities, but seldom in crystalline masses. In the united states, at Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey; large crystals from Wood’s Chrome mine, near Texas, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; at the Tilly Foster mine, Brewster, Putnam County, NY; a deposit that is big Gibbs, Gibbs district, Nye County, Nevada; during the Crestmore quarry, Riverside County, California. In Canada, at Asbestos and Wakefield, Quebec. From Mt. Vesuvius, Campania, and at Teulada, Sardinia, Italy. On Unst, Shetland Islands, as well as Camas Mòr, Isle of Muck, Scotland. At Långban and Nordmark, Värmland, Sweden. From Asbest, Ural Mountains, Russia. Fine crystals into the Ethyl mine, Mutorashanga, Zimbabwe. From Phalaborwa, Transvaal, South Africa. Fine crystals also found in Namibia at the Kombat Mine, Grootfontein District, Otjozondjupa Region; and the Tsumeb Mine, Tsumeb, Otjikoto Region.
| Category: | Oxide mineral |
| Chemical Formula: | Mg(OH)2 |
| Magnesium Hydroxide | |
| Molecular Weight: | 58.32 gm |
| Composition: | Magnesium | 41.68 % | Mg | 69.11 % | MgO |
| Hydrogen | 3.46 % | H | 30.89 % | H2O | |
| Oxygen | 54.87 % | O | |||
| 100.00 % | 100.00 % | = TOTAL OXIDE |
| Crystallography: | Trigonal – Hexagonal Scalenohedral |
| Crystal Habit: | Crystals rare, tabular, to 19 cm, in platy or foliated masses and rosettes; also fibrous, to 50 cm; granular, massive. |
| Twinning: | None |
| Cleavage: | Perfect on {0001} |
| Fracture: | Sectile, separable plates are flexible; Fibrous, fibers are elastic. |
| Tenacity: | Brittle |
| Moh’s Hardness: | 2.5 – 3.0 |
| Density: | 2.39 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | None |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Other: | Pyroelectric |
| Color: | White, Pale Green, Blue, Gray; Honey-Yellow to Brownish Red and deep Brown in manganoan varieties |
| Transparency: | Transparent to Translucent |
| Luster: | Vitreous to Waxy; Pearly on cleavages |
| Refractive Index: | 1.56 – 1.60 Uniaxial ( + ); anomalously Biaxial |
| Birefringence: | 0.0200 |
| Dispersion: | None |
| Pleochroism: | None |
