Haematite With Barytes BIRUG 289

Specimen of the iron oxide mineral haematite with barytes - a barium sulphate mineral. Haematite has a variety of naturally occurring forms including tabular crystals, thin (micaceous), kidney-shaped (reniform), grape-like (botryoidal) or stalactitic masses and more. It also has a broad range of colour, from black and grey to shiny metallic or bright red. Haematite is possibly one of the oldest minerals to be given an “-ite” suffix. It was originally named by Theophrastus in 300–325 BC as “aematitis lithos” translating to “blood stone”. It was then translated by Pliny the Elder to “Haematites” meaning “bloodlike”. Barytes is generally a colourless or white mineral; the name derives from the ancient Greek “barús” meaning “heavy”, due to its unusual weight for a non-metallic mineral. It has a wide variety of uses including a non-magnetic weighting agent in oil and gas drilling fluids. This specimen is part of the Museum’s McLean Collection and was scanned with an Artec Spider 3D scanner by Courtney Szanto.