How do you determine an unknown mineral???

Question

i need to write a parag. about that ..so just give me a few facts and ideas pls to help me develop. thxxx

if you dont wana help just dont answer.

Answer 1

There are over 4,000 known minerals. Each mineral has unique physical and chemical properties that distinguishes it from other minerals. Most geologists (or mineralogists) use color, streak, density, hardness, cleavage, habit, and luster to identify minerals.

More advanced techniques involve radioactivity, magnetic susceptibility, fluorescence, optical thin sections, X-ray diffraction, microprobe, and SEM.

Most mineralogists have their own preferred methods, but progressive elimination plays a key part. A mineralogist would look at a mineral with the naked eye, a hand lens, or a reflecting light microscope to determine its color, cleavage, hardness, and luster. For common minerals such as hornblende, quartz, calcite, mica, tourmaline, etc that is usually sufficient. If there is still some uncertainty, the mineralogist could check its hardness and streak (if the mineral is large enough) and its density (or specific gravity) if the mineral can be separated from other materials. If that doesn't work, then s/he would make a thin section or do XRD testing.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Area selection
Target definition
Resource evaluation
Reserve definition
Extraction

Answer 3

You can use a streak plate which tells you its hardness
You can identify its crystal structure which will help you identify it
You can look at the color of the mineral and how it breaks apart
These are all I can think of right now.

Answer 4

Minerals are identified by their chemical composition, crystal structure, occurrence, color, hardness and many other minor characteristics. With these criteria, it is almost certain that geologists can identify the mineral.