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[PTTG??]

This is a stibnite rock. It menaces with spikes of stibnite. It menaces with spikes of stibnite. It menaces with spikes of stibnite. It menaces with spikes of stibnite.

[RP]

BWAHAHAHA I can see it now: selling marcasite jewelry to unsuspecting elves. Would serve them and their snootiness right.

[PTTG??]

ILMENITE

lmenite is a weakly magnetic titanium-iron oxide mineral which is iron-black or steel-gray. It is a crystalline iron titanium oxide (FeTiO3). It crystallizes in the trigonal system, and it has the same crystal structure as corundum and hematite.

RUTILE

Rutile is a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide, TiO2.
Rutile is the most common natural form of TiO2, with two rarer polymorphs anatase (sometimes known by the obsolete name 'octahedrite'), a tetragonal mineral of pseudo-octahedral habit; and brookite, an orthorhombic mineral.
Rutile has among the highest refractive indices of any known mineral and also exhibits high dispersion. Natural rutile may contain up to 10% iron and significant amounts of niobium and tantalum.
Rutile derives its name from the Latin rutilus, red, in reference to the deep red color observed in some specimens when viewed by transmitted light.

MAGNETITE

Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron(II,III) oxide and the common chemical name ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part wüstite (FeO) and one part hematite (Fe2O3). This refers to the different oxidation states of the iron in one structure, not a solid solution. Magnetite is the most magnetic of all the naturally occurring minerals on Earth, and these magnetic properties led to lodestone being used as an early form of magnetic compass.

CHROMITE

Chromite, iron magnesium chromium oxide: (Fe, Mg)Cr2O4, is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. Magnesium is always present in variable amounts, also aluminium and iron substitute for chromium.
Chromite is found in peridotite and other layered ultramafic intrusive rocks and also found in metamorphic rocks such as serpentinites. Ore deposits of chromite form as early magmatic differentiates. It is commonly associated with olivine, magnetite, serpentine, and corundum.

PYROLUSITE

Pyrolusite is a mineral consisting essentially of manganese dioxide (MnO2) and is important as an ore of manganese. It is a soft, black, amorphous appearing mineral, often with a granular, fibrous or columnar structure, sometimes forming reniform crusts. It has a metallic luster, a black or bluish-black streak, and readily soils the fingers. The specific gravity is about 4.8.

PITCHBLENDE

Uraninite is a uranium-rich mineral with a composition that is largely UO2 (uranium dioxide), but which also contains UO3 and oxides of lead, thorium, and rare earths. It is most commonly known in the variety pitchblende (from pitch, because of its black color, and blende, a term used by German miners to denote minerals whose density suggested metal content, but whose exploitation was, at the time they were named, either impossible or not economically feasible). All uraninite minerals contain a small amount of radium as a radioactive decay product of uranium; it was in pitchblende from the Jáchymov (then Joachimsthal, Austria-Hungary) now in the Czech Republic that Marie Curie discovered radium. Uraninite also always contains small amounts of the lead isotopes, Pb-206 and Pb-207, the end products of the decay series of the uranium isotopes U-238 and U-235 respectively. Small amounts of helium are also present in uraninite as a result of alpha decay. Helium was first found on Earth in uraninite after previously being discovered spectroscopically in the Sun's atmosphere. The extremely rare element technetium can be found in uraninite in very small quantities (about 0.2 ng/kg), produced by the spontaneous fission of uranium-238.

BAUXITE

Bauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al(OH)3, boehmite γ-AlO(OH), and diaspore α-AlO(OH), together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2. It was named after the village Les Baux-de-Provence in southern France, where it was first discovered in 1821 by geologist Pierre Berthier.

NATIVE ALUMINUM

In the Earth's crust, aluminium is the most abundant (8.13%) metallic element, and the third most abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon). However, because of its strong affinity to oxygen, it is not found in the elemental state but only in combined forms such as oxides or silicates. Feldspars, the most common group of minerals in the earth's crust, are aluminosilicates.
Although aluminium is an extremely common and widespread element, the common aluminium minerals are not economic sources of the metal. Almost all metallic aluminium is produced from the ore bauxite. Bauxite occurs as a weathering product of low iron and silica bedrock in tropical climatic conditions.

[Ubersoldat]

Hey guys, this thread ROCKS, ha ha ha...-

oh wait

[Kagus]

Bauxite got listed twice.  By the way, any idea what that thing poking out of the rutile is?  It looks like the brooms they use here in India.  I suppose it's probably just a very tough patch of grass...

[PTTG??]

BORAX

Borax (from Persian burah), also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.
Borax has a wide variety of uses. It is a component of many detergents, cosmetics, and enamel glazes. It is also used to make buffer solutions in biochemistry, as a fire retardant, as an anti-fungal compound for fiberglass, as an insecticide, as a flux in metallurgy, and as a precursor for other boron compounds.

OLIVINE

Olivine is usually named for its typically olive-green color (thought to be a result of traces of nickel), though it may alter to a reddish color from the oxidation of iron. It has a conchoidal fracture and is rather brittle. The hardness of olivine is 6.5–7, its relative density is 3.27–3.37, and it has a vitreous luster. It is transparent to translucent.
Transparent olivine is sometimes used as a gemstone called peridot, the French word for olivine. It is also called chrysolite, from the Greek words for gold and stone. Some of the finest gem-quality olivine has been obtained from a body of mantle rocks on Zabargad island in the Red Sea.

HORNBLENDE

Hornblende is a complex inosilicate series of minerals. Hornblende is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole(A kind of common iron-rich stone).

KAOLINITE

Kaolinite is a clay mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina octahedra (Deer et al., 1992). Rocks that are rich in kaolinite are known as china clay or kaolin. Kaolinite is very common on earth.

SERPENTINE

The serpentine group describes a group of common rock-forming hydrous magnesium iron phyllosilicate ((Mg, Fe)3Si2O5(OH)4) minerals; they may contain minor amounts of other elements including chromium, manganese, cobalt and nickel. In mineralogy and gemology, serpentine may refer to any of 20 varieties belonging to the serpentine group. Owing to admixture, these varieties are not always easy to individualize, and distinctions are not usually made.

ORTHOCLASE

Orthoclase (endmember formula KAlSi3O8) is an important tectosilicate mineral, which forms igneous rock. It is also known as alkali feldspar and is common in granite and related rocks.

MICROCLINE


Microcline (KAlSi3O8) is an important igneous rock forming tectosilicate mineral. It is a potassium-rich alkali feldspar. Microcline typically contains minor amounts of sodium. It is common in granite and pegmatites. Microcline forms during slow cooling of orthoclase; it is stable at lower temperatures than orthoclase. Microcline may be clear, white, pale-yellow, brick-red, or green; it is generally characterized by cross-hatch twinning that forms as a result of the transformation of monoclinic orthoclase into triclinic microcline. Microcline may be chemically the same as monoclinic orthoclase, but because it belongs to the triclinic crystal system, the prism angle is slightly less than right angles; hence the name "microcline" from the Greek "small slope."

[PTTG??]

MICA

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic with a tendency towards pseudo-hexagonal crystals and are similar in chemical composition. The highly perfect cleavage, which is the most prominent characteristic of mica, is explained by the hexagonal sheet-like arrangement of its atoms.
The word "mica" is thought to be derived from the Latin word micare, to glitter, in reference to the brilliant appearance of this mineral (especially when in small scales). Mica has a lamellar form with a shiny luster.

CALCITE

Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite.  It has a Mohs hardness of 3, a specific gravity of 2.71, and its luster is vitreous in crystallized varieties. Color is white or none, though shades of gray, red, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, or even black can occur when the mineral is charged with impurities.
Calcite is transparent to opaque and may occasionally show phosphorescence or fluorescence. It is perhaps best known because of its power to produce strong double refraction of light, such that objects viewed through a clear piece of calcite appear doubled in all of their parts—a phenomenon first described by Rasmus Bartholin. A beautifully transparent variety used for optical purposes comes from Iceland, called Iceland spar.

SALTPETER
(Potassium nitrate)

Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula KNO3. A naturally occurring mineral source of nitrogen, KNO3 constitutes a critical oxidizing component of black powder gunpowder. In the past it was also used for several kinds of burning fuses, including slow matches. Since potassium nitrate readily precipitates, urine was a significant source, through various malodorous means, from the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern era through the 19th century. Potassium nitrate is the oxidizing component of black powder. Before the large-scale industrial fixation of nitrogen through the Haber process, major sources of potassium nitrate were the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the draining of decomposing organic material. Potassium nitrate is also used as a fertilizer, in amateur rocket propellant, and in several fireworks such as smoke bombs, in which a mixture with sugar produces a smoke cloud of 600 times their own volume. The ratio for smoke bombs using sucrose (powdered sugar) and potassium nitrate is 40(C12H22O11):60(KNO3). It can be used as is,or consolidated into a lump by mixing with water to make a paste and allowing to dry overnight.

(Please don't take the above as encouragement to try a practical experiment, and if you do, it came from Wikipedia, not me.)

ALABASTER, ECT.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Alabaster.whole.600pix.jpg/200px-Alabaster.whole.600pix.jpg
Alabaster (sometimes called satin spar) is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals: gypsum (a hydrous sulfate of calcium) and calcite (a carbonate of calcium). The former is the alabaster of the present day; the latter is generally the alabaster of the ancients.
The two kinds are readily distinguished from each other by their relative hardnesses. The gypsum kind is so soft as to be readily scratched by a finger-nail (Mohs hardness 1.5 to 2), while the calcite kind is too hard to be scratched in this way (Mohs hardness 3), though it does yield readily to a knife. Moreover, the calcite alabaster, being a carbonate, effervesces on being touched with hydrochloric acid, whereas the gypsum alabaster, when so treated, remains practically unaffected.

Selenite, satin spar, desert rose, and gypsum flower are the four crystalline varieties of gypsum. All gypsum varieties are very soft mineral (hardness: 2 on Mohs Scale) composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate (meaning has two molecules of water), with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. Selenite can be scratched with a fingernail.

ANHYDRITE

Anhydrite is a mineral - anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium (baryte) and strontium (celestine) sulfates, as might be expected from the chemical formulas. Distinctly developed crystals are somewhat rare, the mineral usually presenting the form of cleavage masses. The hardness is 3.5 and the specific gravity 2.9. The colour is white, sometimes greyish, bluish or purple. On the best developed of the three cleavages the lustre is pearly, on other surfaces it is vitreous. When exposed to water, anhydrite readily transforms to the more commonly occurring gypsum, (CaSO4·2H2O) by the absorption of water. Anhydrite is commonly associated with calcite, halite, and sulfides such as galena, chalcopyrite, molybdenite and pyrite in vein deposits.

ALUNITE

Alunite, or alumstone, is a mineral that was first observed in the 15th century in Monti della Tolfa, north to Rome, where it was mined for the manufacture of alum. First called aluminilite by J.C. Delametherie in 1707, this name was contracted by François Beudant in 1824 to alunite.
Distinct crystals of alunite are rarely found in cavities in the massive material. Alunite crystallizes in the hexagonal system with crystals forming trigonal pyramids that resemble rhombohedra with interfacial angles of 90 50', so that they resemble cubes in appearance. Minute glistening crystals have also been found loose in cavities in altered rhyolite. Alunite varies in color from white to yellow gray. The hardness is 4 and the specific gravity is between 2.6 and 2.8. The mineral is a hydrated aluminium potassium sulfate, KAl3(SO4)2(OH)6. Sodium substitutes for potassium and when high in sodium it is called natroalunite. It is insoluble in water or weak acids, but soluble in sulfuric acid. Jarosite is an iron analogue in which Fe3+ replaces the aluminium. It occurs as a secondary mineral on iron sulfate ores.

NOTE:
There are only 7 images in this post. Why? Because of the special bonus mineral that gets it's own.

[PTTG??]

ADAMANTINE
(Native Carbon Fiber / Buckysphere - Plutonic Formation)

Carbon fiber (alternately called graphite fiber) is a material consisting of extremely thin fibers about 0.0002-0.0004 inches (0.005-0.010 mm) in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in microscopic crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber. The crystal alignment makes the fiber incredibly strong for its size. Several thousand carbon fibers are twisted together to form a yarn, which may be used by itself or woven into a fabric.[1] Carbon fiber can be combined with a plastic resin and wound or molded to form composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic (also referenced as carbon fiber) to provide a high strength-to-weight ratio material. The density of carbon fiber is also considerably lower than the density of steel, making it ideal for applications requiring low weight. [2] The properties of carbon fiber such as high tensile strength, low weight, and low thermal expansion make it very popular in aerospace, military, and motorsports, along with other competition sports. The unique appearance of carbon fiber also makes it popular for stylistic purposes.

The atomic structure of carbon fiber is similar to that of graphite, consisting of sheets of carbon atoms (graphene sheets) arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern. The difference lies in the way these sheets interlock. Graphite is a crystalline material in which the sheets are stacked parallel to one another in regular fashion. The chemical bonds between the sheets are relatively weak Van der Waals forces, giving graphite its soft and brittle characteristics. Depending upon the precursor to make the fiber, carbon fiber may be turbostratic or graphitic, or have a hybrid structure with both graphitic and turbostratic parts present. In turbostratic carbon fiber the sheets of carbon atoms are haphazardly folded, or crumpled, together. Carbon fibers derived from Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) are turbostratic, whereas carbon fibers derived from mesophase pitch are graphitic after heat treatment at temperatures exceeding 2200 C. Turbostratic carbon fibers tend to have high tensile strength, wheresas heat-treated mesophase-pitch-derived carbon fibers have high Young's modulus and high thermal conductivity.

ADAMANTINE WEAPONS:

Carbon Fiber Sword

War Axe

And the Deadliest Item Known to all of Dwarfkind; the Adamantine Arrow:

[Kagus]

Hah hah, clever.  Although there is a real mineral called "adamantine".

Adamantine spar

Adamantine is a mineral, often referred to as adamantine spar. It is a silky brown form of corundum. It has a Mohs rating of 9.

Adamantine is also used as an adjective to refer to non-metallic, brilliant light reflecting and transmitting properties, known as adamantine luster. Diamond is the best known material to be described as having adamantine luster, although anglesite, cerussite and corundum in some of its forms are also described in this way.

[PTTG??]

I looked it up more thuroughly, and it turns out that there is a "native carbon nanotube" ore:

Fullerite (solid state)
The C60 fullerene in crystalline form
The C60 fullerene in crystalline form

Fullerites are the solid-state manifestation of fullerenes and related compounds and materials.

Polymerized single walled nanotubes (P-SWNT) are a class of fullerites and are comparable to diamond in terms of hardness. However, due to the way that nanotubes intertwine, P-SWNTs do not have the corresponding crystal lattice that makes it possible to cut diamonds neatly. This same structure results in a less brittle material, as any impact that the structure sustains is spread out throughout the material. Because nanotubes are still very expensive to produce in useful quantities[citation needed], uses for a material lighter and stronger than steel will have to wait until nanotube production becomes more economically viable.

Lighter, stronger, sharper, and more expensive than steel, eh? Sound familiar?

[RPharazon]

quote:Originally posted by PTTG??:
<STRONG>Lighter, stronger, sharper, and more expensive than steel, eh? Sound familiar?</STRONG>

But where do the demons come into play?

[NikkTheTrick]

quote:Originally posted by RPharazon:
<STRONG>

But where do the demons come into play?</STRONG>

Ever tried to get money for research from funding agencies? Those guys are demons...

[Normandy]

Urist has been struck down by Tentacle Demon!
Tentacle Demon is now known as 'Dokem Trifelglist, "Government Funding Agent"'

[Mechanoid]

quote:Originally posted by PTTG??:
turns out that there is a "native carbon nanotube" ore

[Osmosis Jones]

Boring tangent on nanotubes... probably tldr

Manufacture of carbon nanotubes isn't the real problem (there are several methods, of which perhaps the easiest is catalysed growth off metal, usually nickel iirc, nanoparticles).
The biggest issue with using them is actually binding them together into a macroscale solid - nanotubes tend to clump together, rather than dispersing into the polymer solution.

As for native ores containing nanotubes, there are hundreds of examples, as long as you don't limit yourself to carbon nanotubes, such as several clays in Indonesia, or more famously perhaps, asbestos. Tis nasty schist.

(Spoken with the arrogant certainty of 3 years of a nanotechnology major

Incidently, this thread rocks my world.