Bixbite (Red Beryl)
Bixbite (also called Red Beryl) could be the colour that is red of the Beryl category of minerals that includes Aquamarine (blue), Emerald (green), Goshenite (colourless), Heliodor (yellow), Morganite (pink) and Pezzottaite (red). Bixbite gets its rich colour that is red traces of manganese added to the fundamental Beryl formula. Bixbite is definitely a treasure that is rare always very small because of the scarcity and small size of crystals. Gemmy crystals are usually kept as mineral specimens by collectors gems that are making to find. Bixbite is usually heavily included and gems which are clean excessively uncommon.
Red Beryl was discovered in 1905 in the Thomas Range, Juab County, Utah, United States Of America by Maynard Bixby. The crystals being little discovered in a rhyolite host rock and were translucent yet not gummy. It wasn’t until the late 1950’s that larger, better quality crystals had been based in the Wah Wah Mountains in Beaver County, Utah. This is certainly the spot that is only the world where treasure quality Red Beryl has ever been found. Constant mixing of Red Beryl in the Wah Wah Mountains has only taken place since 1978. But mining has ended at the Violet Claims Mine so this gem that is rare become even rarer. Bixbite is certainly one of the rarest gems of the world!
Recently, the gem that is red Pezzottaite is offered in the market as Bixbite by some sellers. It does resemble Bixbite in colour and some mineral characteristics, and it is a known member of the Beryl group of minerals, but it is not Bixbite. The chemistry and structure that is a crystal of two are various. The IMA recently authorised Pezzottaite as a new mineral species (IMA #2003-022) of the Beryl family members of minerals due to these differences. Pezzottaite has just been present in Ambatovita, Madagascar. The Wah Wah Mountains as well as the Thomas array of Utah, USA are nevertheless the locations that are just the world to find gem quality Bixbite.
| Category: |
Cyclosilicate |
| Chemical Formula: | Be3Al2Si6O18 + Mn |
| Beryllium Aluminum Silicate | |
| Molecular Weight: | 537.50 gm |
| Composition: | Berylium | 5.03 % | Be | 13.96 % | BeO |
| Aluminum | 10.04 % | Al | 18.97 % | Al2O3 | |
| Silicon | 31.35 % | Si | 67.07 % | SiO2 | |
| Oxygen | 53.58 % | O | |||
| 100.00 % | 100.00 % | = TOTAL OXIDE |
| Crystallography: | Hexagonal – Dihexagonal Dipyramidal |
| Crystal Habit: | Crystals are prismatic, elongated or flattened, equant. |
| Twinning: | None |
| Cleavage: | Indistinct |
| Fracture: | Conchoidal to Uneven |
| Tenacity: | Brittle |
| Moh’s Hardness: | 7.5 – 8.0 |
| Density: | 2.66 – 2.70 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | None |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Colour: | Deep Rose Red, Pinkish Red, Gooseberry Red |
| Transparency: | Transparent, Translucent, Opaque |
| Lustre: | Vitreous (glassy) |
| Refractive Index: | 1.567 – 1.572 Uniaxial ( – ) |
| Birefringence: | 0.004 – 0.008 |
| Dispersion: | 0.014 (low) |
| Pleochroism: | Distinct; purplish-red – orange-red |
| Ultraviolet Fluorescence: | None (some fracture filling materials used to improve emerald’s clarity do fluoresce, but the stone itself does not). Morganite has weak violet fluorescence |
