Geographic Minerals

Bentonite is an absorbent aluminum phyllosilicate clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite. It was named by Wilbur C. Knight in 1898 after the Cretaceous Benton Shale…

Bauxite, an aluminum ore, is the world’s main source of aluminum. It is not a mineral. It is a rock formed from a laterite soil…

Barbertonite is a magnesium chromium carbonate mineral with the formula of [Mg6Cr2(OH)16CO3·4H2O]. It was named after the Barberton district in South Africa, where it first…

Bystrite is a silicate mineral with the formula (Na, K)7Ca(Si6Al6)O24S4.5•(H2O), and a member of the cancrinite mineral group. It is a silicate mineral and a…

Bustamite is a calcium manganese inosilicate (chain silicate) and a member of the wollastonite group. It was named after General Anastasio Bustamente (1780-1853), of Mexico.…

Bunsenite is the naturally occurring form of nickel(II) oxide, NiO. It occurs as rare dark green crystal coatings. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system…

Bultfonteinite, originally dutoitspanite, is pink to the colorless mineral with chemical formula Ca2SiO2(OH, F)4. It was named after the type locality at Bultfontein in the…

Bukovskyite (also known as “clay of Kutná Hora”) is an iron arsenate sulfate mineral with formula: Fe2(AsO4)(SO4)(OH)·7H2O which forms nodules with a reniform (kidney-shaped) surface.…

Bukovite is a rare selenide mineral with formula Tl2Cu3FeSe4. It is a brown to black metallic mineral which crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It was…

Buddingtonite is ammonium feldspar with the formula: NH4AlSi3O8 (note: some sources add 0.5H2O to the formula). It is the ammonia feldspar originally found at this…

Brushite is a phosphate mineral with the chemical formula CaHPO4·2H2O. It was named after Professor George Jarvis Brush (1831–1912), an American mineralogist associated with Yale…

Brucite is the mineral form of magnesium hydroxide, with the chemical formula Mg(OH)2. It is the mineral form of magnesium hydroxide, first discovered in 1824…