CELESTINE

SrSO₄
Orthorhombic

	Figure 24-5. Crystal drawing of celestine from Sterling Hill. Drawing is from Palache (1935) who provided crystallographic data.

Celestine, a strontium sulfate mineral of the barite group, was reported from Franklin by Gordon (1922) and from Sterling Hill by Bauer and Berman (1930) (Figure 24-5). It occurs as light blue, light pink, or colorless crystals, commonly bladed or tabular on {100} and up to 7 mm in length.

Most megascopic material is light blue to some degree, albeit faint. Cleavages are good on {100}, {001}, and {010}, and the luster is vitreous. Gordon (1922) reported Franklin celestine to be biaxial, positive, with a = 1.621, b = 1.625, and g = 1.631. There is a moderate pale-blue fluorescence in shortwave ultraviolet according to Bostwick (1992). Bauer and Berman reported their Sterling Hill material to be pure in chemical composition. 

The original Franklin celestine occurs as 0.5 mm stout crystals in a thick coating with a saccharoidal texture and a high luster; it encrusted vugs in rhodochrosite associated with calcite and franklinite. Additional specimens, up to 10 cm, were subsequently found on the 900 level, 35 feet from the footwall, and are almost entirely celestine, with vein-like and vuggy textures, and composed of 4-7 mm crystals.

Sterling Hill celestine occurs as 4-7 mm, tabular to bladed, light blue crystals in vugs and seams. It has been found on the 1200, 1300, and 1750 levels, associated with a number of minerals. Calcite is commonly present, and the assemblages appear to have been carbonate veins with much recrystallization. An occurrence in a veinlet assemblage associated with wollastonite-bearing rocks was noted by Jenkins (1994). Celestine is in some respects similar to barite, especially in mode of occurrence, but barite is much more abundant at both orebodies.

Copyright © 1995 by Pete J. Dunn			Website by Herb Yeates
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This page created: January 11, 2001