Description
Gahnite has a hardness of 7½ – 8 and a specific gravity of 4.62. Gahnite was named in 1807 by Baron Karl Marie Ehrenbert von Moll in honor of Swedish chemist and mineralogist, Johan Gottlieb Gahn, which replaced ‘Automalite’ named by Anders Gustav Ekeberg.
Wikipedia states that Gahnite “is a rare mineral belonging to the spinel group. It forms octahedral crystals which may be green, blue, yellow, brown or grey. It often forms as an alteration product of sphalerite in altered massive sulphide deposits such as at Broken Hill, Australia.”
Gahnite is often found near metamorphic and pegmatitic geologic settings associated with Calcite, Quartz, Muscovite, Phlogopite, Augite, Rhodonite, Willemite, Albite, Microcline, and Andradite, according to WebMineral.
An analyzed specimen on WebMineral was found to be comprised of roughly 35% Zinc and Oxygen, and 30% Aluminum, and if it weren’t so rare, it’d probably be a great ore for Zinc and Aluminum, but, being as rare as it is instead makes this a great collectible for element collectors!
Additionally, this specific specimen is appealing to Colorado mineral collectors, as Colorado Gahnite isn’t very common!
Gahnite is found in roughly 55 localities across Colorado, and roughly 1,000 worldwide, and now that you know what it looks like, be sure to keep your eyes out for a rock like this and you might just make a new discovery and find your new Zinc mine!
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