[Rockhounds] The Color of Rare Earth Minerals

[gary brown]

He was wondering about the ore, I think.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> On Behalf Of J Bryan Kramer
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2019 2:30 PM
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] The Color of Rare Earth Minerals

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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