Carbonates: Rhodochrosite (manganese or raspberry spar)

Diagnostic card.
Rhombohedral crystals of rhodochrosite in the parent rock. From the state of Colorado, USA. The crystals are typically orange-pink in color, due to the presence of manganese.

Mn CO ₃
The trigonial trigonometric system
Hardness 3,5-4
Specific weight 3,3-3,7
Cleavage is perfect
Crack irregular
Color pink, orange-pink
Color in powder white
Glitter from glass to pearly

Rhodochrosite is manganous, or crimson, spar, the "Inca Rose". The name of the stone received for its color (from the Greek rhodon - rose); Synonyms - by composition, color or location. Units have a banded structure - an alternation of dark and light pink bands with a scalloped pattern. Glitter is glass, on the planes of cleavage - pearly.

The most popular are the crimson-red varieties. The most famous deposit is in Drentine, near San Luis. Here in the abandoned Incas from the XIII century. Rhodochrosite stalagmites are known for silver mines. The number of jewelry stones entered only since 1950. Recently, new deposits have been discovered - in Argentina (Kapillitas, near Andalgala, and Catamarca to the south of Tucuman) and in the USA (Colorado). Usually used in large ore; It is in them that the expressiveness and beauty of the drawing is felt. This decorative ornamental stone used to make vases or boxes, sometimes it makes cabochons and beads. Externally you can be confused with rhodonite.

Occurs in the form of microcrystalline aggregates of granular or continuous addition, as well as concretion masses of a concentric or stalactite structure. It is mostly opaque. The color may be pink, lilac-pink, yellowish-pink, and the color is distributed fairly evenly. Often clusters of rhodochrosite are covered with a brown-black coating of manganese oxides (oxidation products), which hide the inherent in the mineral glass and pearlescent shine, which appears on the cleavage planes.

Exceptionally rare and nevertheless gorgeous are well-formed crystals. They are slightly translucent or transparent and only occasionally completely transparent. These can be rhombohedra with distinct endings or scalenoders. There are both individual crystals, and magnificent druses, intensely painted in orange-pink or red.

Diagnostic signs.
Rhodochrosite can be confused with rhodonite (manganese silicate of pink color); With tulit containing manganese (silicate of alumina and calcium, also red); As well as with pink calcite. From the latter, rhodochrosite differs by reaction with hydrochloric acid only when heated (calcite reacts with very dilute hydrochloric acid in the cold). A small hardness distinguishes rhodochrosite from rhodonite and tulit. Does not melt, becomes fissured and acquires a greenish color. Behavior in acids. Quickly soluble in hot HCl (with strong effervescence).

Origin.
Occurs in ore-bearing hydrothermal veins as a result of the action of hydrothermal fluids (gases) on host rocks containing manganese. Very rarely rhodochrosite has a sedimentary origin.

Place of Birth.
A typical hydrothermal Butte field in the state of Montana (USA) is interesting to find in it the continuous differences of massive addition. They are represented, in addition, in other places, especially in Argentina. In the state of Colorado (USA) there are good crystals, which can sometimes be granulated. Beautiful thanks to the transparency and coloring of the specimens found in Hotazel ​​in South Africa.

Application.
This mineral, when present in sufficient quantities, is mined on an industrial scale as an ore for manganese. It is used as a reducing agent in metallurgy and for the production of special steels.

Use in jewelry.
Rare, transparent specimens are treated with steps with few facets of a rectangular or octagonal shape. Massive differences of rhodochrosite are sharpened in the form of balls for necklaces, cabochons or bracelets. In these cases, you can achieve a variety of geometric and color effects, limiting the accumulation of the mineral in parallel or perpendicular to the elongation of the crystals.

Rhodochrosite (strawberry, or manganese, spar), is manganese carbonate. Glitter is glass. Transluces. Colors: pink, less often gray, brown. The line is white. The fracture is uneven, stepped, less often conchoidal. It's fragile. Cleavage is perfect. It forms in hydrothermal veins. Crystals (trigonal system) are crayons. The aggregates are shpatopodobnye, dense, radial-radiant. An important ore of manganese. Painted ores are used as an ornamental stone. Deposits: Freiberg, Saxony (Germany), Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, CIS, USA.

Rhodochrosite is also known under the almost out of use name "manganese spar" From the chemical point of view, rhodochrosite is manganese carbonate. It is not accidental that it is also called manganese spar. The name was given to him in 1813 by the German mineralogist FG Gaussmann, who studied manganese minerals, and in Greek means "the color of the rose." It is also known under the almost-obsolete name "manganese spar". In the East, rhodochrosite was called the "stone of the dawn". There are, however, raspberry, brown and even almost colorless rhodochrosites. The greenish rhodochrosites are a bit like malachite. Rhodochrosite is considered a beautiful and inexpensive ornamental stone. Its hardness is somewhat lower than that of a rhodonite similar to it. Rhodochrosite often cuts various ornaments.

On the international market of collection material, successful samples of rodohryzita are valued above gold of equal weight. In 1992, an ore with several rhombohedra of thick cherry translucent rhodochrosite up to 12 cm from the Home, Sweet Home mine in the state of Colorado (USA) was demonstrated at the international fair in Denver (USA); It was sold for 250 thousand dollars.

Rhodochrosite (MnCO3) in its pure form is very rare in nature. Usually a part of manganese in rhodochrosite is replaced by iron and calcium, and also by magnesium, zinc, cobalt. Usually rhodochrosite is found in the form of continuous granular or coarse-grained masses, accumulations of spherulites. Rhodochrosite is known for a long time. It often accompanies ore sulphides in hydrothermal veins along with quartz, barite and other vein minerals; Is also found in sedimentary deposits of manganese ores.

Rhodochrosite deposits exist in Argentina, Hungary, Germany, USA. In Argentina, in the ancient silver mines of the Incas, unique stalactites from rhodochrosite are found. It is no accident in South America, rhodochrosite is known under the name "roses of the Incas". In Russia, rhodochrosite deposits are discovered in Transbaikalia and the Urals. Rhodochrosite, produced in Mongolia, is characterized by the purest pink coloration.

A brush of rhodochrosite crystals and jewelry made from it (a deposit in South Africa).

Rhodochrosite (pink), bertrandite, fluorite. East. Kounrad, Pribalkhash, Kazakhstan, the CIS.

A large crystal of pink rhodochrosite on quartz. China.

Rhodochrosite (pink), manganite. SOUTH AFRICA.

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