BERYL: Everything you need to know about it

Beryl is a popular and high demand mineral that has many amazing qualities. Beryl also known by its chemical name Be3Al2SiO6 and is a naturally colorless mineral of the igneous and metaphoric rock type.

However, because of impurities and other elements mixed in with Beryl it can come in and be seen as green, blue, red, orange, white, grey and some other color variations in between. Beryl can also be multicolored. Beryl is made up of Beryllium aluminum silicate, occasionally with some sodium, lithium, and cesium.

With this composition Beryl crystalizes into six-sided hexagons. Beryl crystals can be as big as 30 feet long, but they can also be short and stubby. Sometimes, on rare occasion, Beryl crystals can be tabular and plate-like. Beryl crystals can also come in many shapes as well as sizes. The crystals are mostly flat, but also come in pyramid shape and column shape. These crystals may also be striated length-wise.

Beryl’s specific gravity is a 2.6–2.9. The luster of Beryl is Vitreous and waxy. Beryl is extremely fragile and brittle. If Beryl is fractured, it’s either uneven or conchoidal. Its form is colorless to colorful and an extremely hard crystal look. Beryl comes from a granite pegmatites, metamorphosed mica schists, and igneous rhyolite.

Beryl’s uses are mainly for collector or superficial purposes. Many collectors look for valuable styles of Beryl such as the red Beryl, which is the rarest form. It is hard to find and that makes it extremely valuable. Mostly Beryl is used for jewelry and not other forms of art. One of the most popular forms of Beryl is the Emerald which is actually Beryl in green form.

However, while Beryl is seen as a beautiful mineral to wear it is also an important industrial mineral. Beryl is mined for it’s industrial mineral Beryllium. Beryllium is a tough metal and is sometimes used in alloy to help strengthen other metals.

Beryl is the most interesting mineral, because of the different variations. Red Beryl as mentioned above is the rarest form and only found in Utah. Golden Beryl on the other hand is mined from Brazil, Russia and certain areas within the United States of America. Goshenite, another rare form of Beryl, is found in Brazil, China, Russia and some areas within America such as Massachusetts. Goshenite is mainly found within mountains. The giant crystals mentioned in the second paragraph of this paper can be found in the New England area of the United States (Maine has large crystals of Beryl).

Beryl can take many forms, but does not have that many uses, at least none discovered yet. Perhaps in the future Beryl will become more than just a statement piece in a collection or on a hand. I hope that it will be more than just one element of industrial strength. There must be more uses for a mineral that has so many different facets of it.

Sources:

“Minerals.net.” Beryl: The Mineral Beryl Info & Pictures (aquamarine, Emerald). Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.minerals.net/mineral/beryl.aspx>.

“Beryl.”:Mineral Information and Data.Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.mindat.org/min-819.html>.