Mystery Mineral

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 Mystery Mineral

    

    Years ago, my family and I went to a local fossil and mineral store.  I frequent this store every month and buy a couple minerals and fossils each time, as they have new items every time I go.  This store has many different attractions.  One of which was a "Gold Dig", where you panned for small pieces of Pyrite, and another which was a "mine your own minerals" activity where you sift through sand/gravel to find different minerals such as Quartz, Calcite, Fluorites, Agates, and an assortment of different tumbled stones.  I've held onto these minerals for a couple years, and a few months back I decided to look at the mineral dust that collected at the bottom of the plastic bucket under a microscope.  

    One peculiar mineral I discovered at the bottom was this.  

Sorry for the low quality, this photo was taken
on my phone through my microscope.  Since I 
took the photo, I have a better digital microscope.
I tried to find another mystery mineral in the bucket
 the other day, but I oddly did not see one.


Dumortierite
    I have absolutely no idea as to what this mineral is.  A piece of Calcite? A piece of Agate that chipped off? Since I had no clue what it was, I went onto a subreddit dedicated to identifying different rocks and minerals to see if anybody else could find out what it was.  One person answered that it could be a piece of Dumortierite, or a piece of Indicolite (Blue Tourmaline). Dumortierite and Indicolite were the closest minerals they
Rough/Lightly Polished
Indicolite
could find. This was an interesting answer, but as the minerals in the bucket were from a children's activity area, I doubt they would have any high-end minerals such as Indicolite hidden in the sand.  The crystalline structure of Dumortierite looks very similar to the mystery mineral from the bucket, but not close enough to confirm it.



Dark Green Kyanite


The second, and final suggestion was Kyanite.  Before this, I didn't know that Kyanite can come in different colors and shades, such as darkish blue, or green.  Kyanite from Africa are usually dark blue, whilst those from Brazil are usually the familiar light blue color.  But, this has the same issue as the other suggestion.  There doesn't seem to be any Kyanite, tumbled, or raw in the plastic bucket.  The closest minerals from the bucket that look like the mystery mineral are a piece of Calcite, and what looks to be a tumbled piece of Agate (?).  


Darkish Blue Kyanite


Light Blue Kyanite




What I Think The Mystery Mineral Is


My piece of Azurite
under my digital
microscope

After all these months, I still had no clue what the mineral was.  But, while I was looking at my mineral collection, I picked up a piece of Azurite I had bought a while back.  I placed it back down on my shelf and noticed that I had little blue specks on my fingers.  I believe I found my culprit.  Azurite is a blue mineral that displays a similar crystalline structure to my mystery mineral.  The "mystery mineral" was about the size of a grain of sand, which also checks out with my Azurite specimen.  After putting the piece of Azurite under a very nice digital microscope, I can almost 99% confirm that the mystery mineral was Azurite.  So how did the Azurite get into the bucket? I don't think I'll ever 100% know, but I'm pretty sure I was handling some Azurite, then touched the minerals in the bucket, and some small crystals that were on my hand got in.  Below are two more photos of the Azurite I own, which further prove my hypothesis of the mystery mineral being Azurite.




















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