MONAZITE-(Ce)

SPECIMEN DESCRIPTION

This thumbnail-sized Monazite-(Ce) is a fine single, detached crystal, with really sharp faces. Its provenance is to the famous Rare Earth bearing pegmatite district in Iveland, Aust-Agder, in southern Norway, but is not specific to an individual pegmatite outcrop. Nevertheless, it displays the classic cinnamon, orange-brown colour, and super monoclinic form seen in crystals from that district. At 2.3 cm in length it is large enough to be able to be studied and viewed without the need for magnification, and provides a lovely example of a typical Rare Earth Element (REE) bearing mineral which nowadays are so talked about. In this instance it as cerium that is the main REE, with phosphate.