Gallian Allanite-Ce

Description

While this radioactive Allanite-Ce (Ca,Ce,Al,Ga,Fe,Si,O,H) specimen with Gallium comes from Russia, Allanite-Ce is found in the United States, with recent reports from Western Utah.

Gallium-bearing Allanite-Ce is one of the few minerals you can find naturally if you’re looking to collect Gallium. While the rest of the elements already listed aren’t rare, and despite that Cerium isn’t very rare for being a Rare-Earth, this is still a pretty cool rock for element collectors – according to Wikipedia, “a large amount of additional elements including Th, U, Be, Zr, P, Ba, Cr and others may be present in the mineral.”

Also according to Wikipedia, “Like all rare-earth metals, cerium is of low to moderate toxicity. A strong reducing agent, it ignites spontaneously in air at 65 to 80 °C. Fumes from cerium fires are toxic. Water should not be used to stop cerium fires, as cerium reacts with water to produce hydrogen gas. Workers exposed to cerium have experienced itching, sensitivity to heat, and skin lesions. Cerium is not toxic when eaten, but animals injected with large doses of cerium have died due to cardiovascular collapse. Cerium is more dangerous to aquatic organisms, on account of being damaging to cell membranes; this is an important risk because it is not very soluble in water, thus causing contamination of the environment.”