Beryllium minerals

Workers come in contact with a large number of chemical substances in work areas, as does the general public. The commonly found chemical carcinogens are grouped under (1) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), (2) nitroso compounds, (3) halogenated hydrocarbons (solvents e.g., carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, trichloroethylene, and methylene chloride), (4) inorganic metals and minerals (beryllium, cadmium, nickel, cobalt, chromium, asbestos and arsenic), and (5) naturally occurring chemical substances (aflatoxins). 

HPhe Environmental Protection Agency has set strict emission standards for stationary combustion sources. No more than 0.01 /xg Be/m3 may occur in the ambient atmosphere around such sources, and a maximum of 10 g may be emitted in a 24-hr period (I). The earth s crust is estimated to contain about 0.001% beryllium, mostly as inorganic minerals. Beryllium has been reported at the parts-per-million level in coal, and in survey analyses with emission spectroscopic techniques Russian authors have reported the detection of unspecified levels in petroleum (2,3,4),... 

The alkali metals of Group I are found chiefly as the chlorides (in the earth s crust and in sea water), and also as sulphates and carbonates. Lithium occurs as the aluminatesilicate minerals, spodimene and lepidolite. Of the Group II metals (beryllium to barium) beryllium, the rarest, occurs as the aluminatesilicate, beryl-magnesium is found as the carbonate and (with calcium) as the double carbonate dolomite-, calcium, strontium and barium all occur as carbonates, calcium carbonate being very plentiful as limestone. 

Beryllium is found in some 30 mineral species, the most important of which are bertrandite, beryl, chrysoberyl, and phenacite. Aquamarine and emerald are precious forms of beryl. Beryl and bertrandite are the most important commercial sources of the element and its compounds. Most of the metal is now prepared by reducing beryllium fluoride with magnesium metal. Beryllium metal did not become readily available to industry until 1957. 

Radiometric ore sorting has been used successfully for some uranium ores because uranium minerals emit gamma rays which may be detected by a scintillation counter (2). In this appHcation, the distribution of uranium is such that a large fraction of the ore containing less than some specified cut-off grade can be discarded with tittle loss of uranium values. Radioactivity can also be induced in certain minerals, eg, boron and beryllium ores, by bombarding with neutrons or gamma rays. 

Occurrence The beryUium content of the earth s surface rocks has been estimated at 4—6 ppm (1). Although ca 45 beryllium-containing minerals have been identified, only beryl [1302-52-9] and bertrandite [12161 -82-9] are of commercial significance. 

Beryllium is extracted from the main source mineral, the alumino-silicate beryl, by conversion to the hydroxide and then through either the fluoride or the chloride to the final metal. If the fluoride is used, it is reduced to beryllium by magnesium by a Kroll-type reaction. The raw metal takes the form of pebble and contains much residual halides and magnesium. With the chloride on the other hand, the pure metal is extracted by electrolysis of a mixture of fused beryllium chloride and sodium chloride. The raw beryllium is now dendritic in character, but still contains residual chloride. 

Minerals often contain more than one cation or anion. For example, apatite, Caj ( 04)3 F, contains both phosphate and fluoride anions. Beryl, Bc3 AI2 Sig Oig, contains beryllium and aluminum cations as well as the Sig Oig polyatomic anion. An even more complicated example is gamierite, (Ni,Mg)e Si4 0io(OH)2,... 

Minerals belonging to the category of insoluble oxide and silicate minerals are many in number. Insoluble oxide minerals include those superficially oxidized and those of oxide type. The former category comprises mainly superficially oxidized sulfide minerals, including metals such as aluminum, tin, manganese, and iron which are won from their oxidic sources. As far as silicate minerals are concerned, there can be a ready reference to several metals such as beryllium, lithium, titanium, zirconium, and niobium which are known for their occurrence as (or are associated with) complex silicates in relatively low-grade deposits. 

C. K. Gupta (Guest Editor), Special Issue Proceedings of the National Workshop on Beryllium, Dec. 54, 1991, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, Vol. 13, No. 14,1994, Vol. 4, No. 1,1994. 

A colorless mineral known as corundum (composed of aluminum oxide) is colorless. A red variety of corundum known as ruby, a precious stone, owes its color to impurities of chromium within the crystal structure of corundum. Blue and violet varieties of corundum are classified as sapphires, the blue being the result of iron and titanium impurities, and the violet of vanadium impurities within the corundum crystal structure. Another colorless mineral is beryl (composed of beryllium aluminum silicate) but blue aquamarine, green emerald, and pink morganite, are precious varieties of beryl including different impurities aquamarine includes iron, emerald chromium and vanadium, and morganite manganese. 

Mineral gemstones that have the same basic chemical composition, that is, are composed of the same major elements and differ only in color, are considered as variations of the same mineral species. As gemstones, however, minerals that have the same composition and crystalline structure but exhibit different colors are classified as different gemstones. Beryl, for example, a mineral (composed of beryllium aluminum silicate), includes a pink variety, known by the gemstone name of morganite, and also a well-known green variety, emerald. Table 18 lists and classifies, by composition and color, gemstones that have been appreciated since antiquity. 

Cunningham, L. D. Beryllium, U.S. Geological Survey—Minerals Information http //minerals.er.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beiyllium Renston, VA 20192 USA, 1997. 

Pegmatite deposits are the most abundant. They contain a variety of minerals including tantalum, niobium, lithium and beryllium, as well as REE and zircon. 

Beryllium (Be, [He]2.s 2), named from the mineral beryl. Also called, in the past, in the French speaking countries, glucinium, from the Greek (sweet). 

Beryllium oxide (BeO) is a beryllium compound produced in significant commercial quantities. The chemical process starts with minerals containing aluminum silicate and silicon dioxide and undergoes a number of chemical reactions, some at high temperatures, to end up with BeO. 

Most chemical reactions of beryllium are similar to those of aluminum and, to a lesser extent, magnesium. In general, all the common mineral acids attack beryllium forming their corresponding salts with evolution of hydrogen ... 

Elemental composition Be 60.02%, C 39.98%. Beryllium may be analyzed by various instrumental techniques (see Beryllium). Additionally, the compound may be treated with a dilute mineral acid. The product methane gas slowly evolved is then analyzed by GC equipped with a TCD, or by GC/MS. 

Individuals whose jobs expose them to unusually high particulate concentrations are especially susceptible to health problems from the pollutant. For example, men and women who work with the mineral asbestos are very prone to development of a serious and usually fatal condition known as asbestosis, in which fibers of the mineral become embedded in the interstices (the empty spaces within tissue) of the lung. Similar conditions are observed among coal workers who inhale coal dust (pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease) textile workers (byssinosis, or brown lung disease) those who work with clay, brick, silica, glass, and other ceramic materials (silicosis) and workers exposed to high levels of beryllium fumes (berylliosis). 

Arfwedson fused the chrysoberyl three times with caustic potash in a silver crucible. Since a portion of the melt corresponding to about 18 per cent of the mineral failed to dissolve in hydrochloric acid, he reported this residue as silica. It is now known that beryllium hydroxide, when freshly precipitated, dissolves readily in hydrochloric acid, but becomes after a time almost completely insoluble in it (17). Therefore, it is probable that Arfwedson s silica was really the beryllium hydroxide. He then precipitated the alumina by adding ammonium hydroxide to the acid filtrate. To satisfy himself of the purity of his alumina, he saturated the alkaline solution with hydrochloric acid until the precipitate dissolved, and added a large excess of ammonium carbonate. Had any glucina [beryllia] or yttria existed in the matter, said Arfwedson, it would have been dissolved by this excess of carbonate of ammonia, and would have fallen when the filtered liquid was boiled till the excess of ammonia was driven off but the liquid stood this test without any precipitate appearing. Arfwedson was evidently unable to detect beryllia here because he had already filtered it off and reported it as silica. When American chemist Henry Seybert analyzed the same mineral in 1824 he found it to contain 15 to 16 per cent of beryllia (22). 

Fhoto loaned by Frau Hiickei, GSttingen, Germany Wohler in Later Life,4 Professor of chemistry at GcSttingen. Famous for his researches on cyanogen, cyanuric acid, and the radical of benzoic acid, and on the metals titanium, aluminum, yttrium, beryllium, and vanadium. German translator of Berzelius Textbook of Chemistry and Hisinger s Mineral Geography. ... 

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