6520 - Barylite

At-A-Glance

Country of Origin

NJ
United States

Photos

Essential Information

Specimen ID

6520

Mineral Name

Barylite

Chemical Formula

BaBe2Si2O7

Subcollection

Franklin and Sterling Hill Suite
Associated Minerals
Serpentine
Calcite
Specimen Number
F147

1/430a

Red-fluorescent calcite, brown serpentine, small sheets of native copper, plus a 1.5-cm colorless glassy grain, probably barylite, enveloped in serpentine. Grain has good cleavage. This is the classic barylite assemblage, but specimens are few. If Princeton possesses an old iron-arc spark machine, used by early collectors as a source of UV light to show their fluorescent minerals, try it on this one. Barylite under the iron arc spark shows a fairly bright blue fluorescence. Under modern UV lamps it shows little or no response. Barylite is one of the rarest of the local minerals and has an interesting composition; it is a barium-beryllium silicate.

Geographic Origin

Locality Nickname

Franklin, New Jersey

Locality Lat/Long

41.1220409, -74.5804378

Mining District

Franklin Mining District

Mine Name

Franklin Mine