[Rockhounds] The Color of Rare Earth Minerals

[J Bryan Kramer]

Do you mean the color of the ore? Or the color of the pure salts? I
believe that the ore that China is mining now is a clay and would be
clay colored. Gadolinite ore is black.  Lanthanum, Europium and
Ytterbium Oxides are white, but Cerium Oxide is either gold-orange or
dark blue depending on the oxidation state. So it varies.

BK

“The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that
Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what
thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

Thomas Sowell

J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner

On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 3:16 PM gary brown <gbrown at catspaw-minerals.com> wrote:
>
> My son (originally a chemist...now a computer geek) asked me an interesting question over lunch (which he paid for!  Yay!):
>
> Are "rare-earth" minerals colorful as a rule, or are they more blue-grey-black?
>
> "Hmmm", I said (munching down another hunk of sushi),  "I'll ask the Hive Mind..."
>
> And so... here I am!
>
> Gary Brown
>
>
>
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