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 Post subject: Need help with ID of thorite and other!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:25 pm 
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Hello! I recently purchased a stone from my local gem shop and wonder if it may have been mislabelled. He called it "thorndite", but I haven't been able to find any information using that name. I used one of my regular gem websites to search for other similar names, but all I found was "thorite", which seems to match description, but is radioactive. If anyone could possibly help me properly ID this stone, that would be awesome, especially if it really is dangerous to handle. The picture shows it as black, but it is actually a very dark green.

Image

Also , this one I forget exactly what he had it as, something like "millerite" or a variant, which I'm fairly certain is also incorrect. In this form, the radiating clusters of needles are so fragile I can hardly pick it up without them breaking. The pic shows it as greyish, but it's actually fairly dark black, not the colour of something like graphite. And I'm fairly certain it is not stibite / stibnite. Thanks!

Image

If this isn't the proper place for this post, I apologize!

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Last edited by WillowArcane on Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:01 am, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:18 am 
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:D howdee, willowarcane, and welcome to the gemology online forum!! i'm not sure if that's thorite or not, but i read that "the estimated radioactivity from thorite is very strong." (from webmineral.com) :shock: the description of the material sounds like thorite may be what you have?

hopefully, ms. barbra or amethystguy might know what you have.

the mysterious "millerite" pics i've seen look like what's in the photo.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:24 am 
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Really? From what I've seen/read, Millerite looks like brass/pyrite in colour, while mine is distinctly black...

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:39 am 
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That looks like millerite to me..don't know about the top specimen..i know someone who is fairly keen on radioactive minerals..might link him here..what is the size of the spec.? thorite has short squatty crystals..yours are long and tapered....either way i wouldn't handle it to much..

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:41 am 
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most of the millerite has the brass-colored needles that i saw, but these appear to have black? needles.

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http://webmineral.com/data/Millerite.shtml


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:43 am 
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you can have all kinds of crude on them, or secondary min. coatings, or maybe even tarnish, or poor "crystal"

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:50 am 
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My piece is *completely* black, there is no other colour to it whatsoever. Also, it's extremely fragile, and the needles are only a few millimeters in length. It doesn't look at all like pictures I've seen so far.

The first pic is only 1" tall by 2" long.

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:04 am 
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hi, willowarcane, i read that boulangerite and jamesonite are sometimes mistaken for millerite. jamesonite "needles" are fragile. i hope someone can help you figure out what you have, willowarcane.

http://www.mindat.org/min-2072.html

http://webmineral.com/specimens/picshow ... ulangerite

here's a nice website, it's alan guisewite's awesome mineral collection:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~adg/adg-piimages.html


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:17 am 
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Hmm, it does look like Boulangerite could possibly be what it is, or else it *is* millerite but maybe just a rare blackened form of it as it's supposed to be brassy? From what I've seen of it, millerite crystals are far, far longer than what I have.

And HA, I have the second book that is displayed at the bottom of your third link =D

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:22 am 
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:lol: willowarcane, i'm *scared* of those long needles in the second picture. :lol:

here's a link of a list of minerals, just in case, it might help you narrow down the search for names of mins, no pictures though, but you could possibly use the web and mineral sites for photos.

http://handbookofmineralogy.com/search.html?p=all


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:27 am 
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Okay, I just tried an admittedly weaksauce attempt at streak. Since the needles themselves are so tiny and fragile, I had to use a flat spot of rock (matrix?) so don't know if this is of any value, but the streak ended up white...

But either way, the FIRST one is the one I really need to know about, if it's radioactive or not!

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:19 am 
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Why not contact the physics dept of a local university? They can tell you in short order whether or not the specimen is radioactive. The three academic rules are research, teaching, and service... including public service.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 7:37 pm 
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Anyone else? If the second pic is supposed to be millerite, could someone explain why it's black and not yellow?

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:34 pm 
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hi willowarcane, i found this for you on millerite. from the MWF Newsletter, March 2009, Issue #408, Official Publication of the Midwest Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies, Member of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies, pages 6-9, "Physical properties of millerite include a metallic luster and brass-yellow color, but because of incipient alteration, bronze-yellow and silvery-gray colors are common..."

http://www.amfed.org/mwf/Newsletters/30 ... letter.pdf

i would take the specimens to a local university's physics dept. to find out if either of the specimens are radioactive as brian suggested though. please let us know when you find out the positive id for both! 8)


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 8:47 pm 
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torithe has 82.5 radiTION
IF IT REALY IS BETTER PUT IT FAR FROM HOME OR PLUMBER BOX


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