How abundant is the mineral ruby?
956412
Ruby is not a mineral in its own right, it is a variety of the mineral CORUNDUM. Ruby is the name given to corundum (aluminum oxide) which is coloured red by having small amounts of chromium as an impurity (blue sapphire is corundum with iron and titanium). Ruby is found in many areas around the world but only in small ammounts. Ruby good enough to cut into gemstones is VERY rare. So rare in fact that the price the prices per carat of fine rubies are the highest of all gemstones including diamonds.
116210
A gem is a pure or near pure crystalline form above a certain size useds for decoration or jewelry, where the ore is a mixture of many minerals, crystalline or not, where none of the forms are large enough to be a gem.  The word gem is a subjective term.
116630
Emerald (Be3Al2SiO6) is a variety of the mineral beryl, Chemically, it is a beryllium-aluminum silicate whose color is due to small quantities of chromium compounds.\n\n It is highly prized as a gemstone and by weight is the most valuable gemstone in the world. Emerald is regarded as the traditional birthstone for May. According to legend, the emerald has the power to protect the chastity of the wearer and to ward off evil spirits.  \n\nThe emerald was highly esteemed in antiquity; the stones were used for ornaments in early Egypt where some of the first emeralds were mined. The finest emeralds are found in South America in Colombia, where they have been mined for over 400 years.   Colombia is the preeminent exporter of emeralds in the world.\n\nIndia, Zimbabwe, and Australia are minor sources of the natural stones. Synthetic emeralds are also manufactured in Germany, France, and the United States.\n\nEmerald is a rare and valuable gemstone and, as such, provided the incentive for developing synthetic emeralds. Both hydrothermal and flux-growth synthetics have been produced and a method has been developed for producing an emerald overgrowth on colorless beryl. Synthetic emeralds fluoresce a dull red with long wave UV light due to an indicator added during the process of synthesizing the emerald, whereas natural specimens do not
369265
these are some minerals that i found were in apples:\n\nMinerals \nCalcium 9.66 mg \nCopper 0.05 mg \nIron 0.24 mg \nManganese 0.06 mg \nMagnesium 6.90 mg \nPhosphorus 9.66 mg \nPotassium 158.70 mg \nSelenium 0.41 mcg \nSodium trace mg \nZinc 0.05 mg \nFats
881903
These elements are too reactive to be found free in nature. Sodium occurs mainly as NaCI (salt) in sea-water and dried-up sea beds. Potassium is more widely distributed in minerals such as sylvite, KCI, but is also extracted from sea-water. The alkali metals are so reactive they cannot be displaced by another element, so are isolated by electrolysis of their molten salts.\n\nEarth Crust Occurrence\n\nLithium 65 ppm\nSodium 2.6%\nPotassium 2.4%\nRubidium 90 ppm\nCesium 7 ppm\nFrancium Artificial\n\nSea Water Occurrance\n\nLithium 0.178 ppm\nSodium 10800 ppm\nPotassium 399 ppm\nRubidium 0.124 ppm\nCesium 2.9x10^-4 ppm\nFrancium Artificial
653584
I did not even know that states had a "state mineral" until this made me look into it, but sure enough... Not every state has a state mineral, or rock, but Alaska has both. Mineral: Gold.  Rock: Jade. Seems kind of silly to me. What's next, a state smell? My state's smell would be squashed skunk, I think.
454778
The element that gives emeralds their beautiful green color is the same element that turns corundum into red rubies - chromium.
92292
Gems - diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires - just need to be cleaned and polished. They already exist in a usable form (after you cut and polish them.) You just need to wash the dirt away. \n\nOres are big piles of dirt that have bits of metal (iron, lead, silver, gold) in them. You have to refine the metal out and melt it into bigger pieces. It is a little like evaporating salt water to get salt.
1048613
Non-radioactive elements are virtually indestructible at the atomic level, unless you're using a nuclear reactor or an atom smasher.  Even if you dissolve gold in aqua regia, the gold atoms are still there, just combined with other atoms in some compound, and could be extracted from the compound by some chemical reaction.\n\nBeing "indestructible" is not really the quality for which gold is prized.  It's that it will still be bright and pure even after years, since it doesn't oxidize, unlike silver, which tarnishes.  Gold can be melted down and recast any number of times, a quality known as "fungibility".
953282
Just a guess: Because of all the coal around this area, I would suppose that sulfide minerals, especially pyrite (iron sulfide) would be common. Some sphalerite (Zn, Fe sulfide) has been found in Lucerne county. Some rozenite (hydrated Fe sulfate) has been reported from Jeddo Highland coal mine in Hazleton.\n\n"Sulfide minerals typically occur in coal beds as well as in strata overlying and underlying the coal. Weathering and aqueous dissolution of the sulfide mineral oxidation products, including dissociated sulfuric acid and metals (e.g., Fe, Mn, Al), produces surface and groundwater degradation." \nwww.epa.gov/waterscience/ guide/coal/support/support2.pdf\n\n"By far the most serious environmental problem caused by abandoned mines is polluted water. It happens when rain comes into contact with a surface or underground mine and interacts with the mineral pyrite, better known as fools' gold, to form sulfuric acid. The toxic brew discharges into streams and rivers, choking off plants and wildlife and coating streambeds with iron hydroxide, tinting water yellow, red or orange. Aluminum, manganese and other metals also leach into the water.\nOld mining operations have polluted about 4,000 miles, or 5 percent, of the rivers and streams in Pennsylvania, officials estimate. The west branch of the mighty Susquehanna River is dead for its upper 70 miles; 1,000 miles of its tributaries are likewise lifeless. The Jeddo Tunnel, an engineering marvel drilled through miles of solid rock to drain deep mines in the Hazleton area, discharges 40,000 gallons of polluted water a minute into the Little Nescopeck Creek -- the largest such discharge in a state full of them."\nhttp://www.theminingnews.org/news.cfm?newsID=951
847013
The presence of titanium oxide in corundum turns it into blue sapphire. The presence of chromium turns it into red ruby. \n\nPure corundum is a translucent brown rock.
653314
Coal, iron ore, copper, chromium, antimony, mercury, gold, barite, borate, celestite (strontium), emery, feldspar, limestone, magnesite, marble, perlite, pumice, pyrites (sulfur), clay, arable land, and hydropower.
1118043
It's not that they only occur in concentrations such as veins, but that they can only be mined when they happen to be concentrated.  Metallic elements can also be found widely distributed through the rocks of the earth.  However, elements like gold make up such a small part of the earth's composition that when they are not concentrated, you would need to process so much rock to get a tiny amount of the metal that the cost of mining and processing would exceed the value of the ore.  In that case, there's no reason to try to mine it, since miners are in business to make money.  For gold, the concentration needs to be a few ounces gold per ton of ore to be economical - that's still not much gold, but it's a lot more than is present on average.  For every metal, the break-even point is different.\n\nNow, about how they end up in veins.  The uncommon elements in the earth can only make their own minerals when they get concentrated.  In the bulk of the earth, these uncommon elements get taken up into common minerals by substituting a few of their atoms for a few atoms of the more \ncommon elements in that mineral's structure.  For example, rubidium or strontium may substitute for calcium in plagioclase feldspars and in calcite and uranium may substitute for zirconium in zircon.  Many economically valuable elements like gold and silver are examples of "incompatible" elements, that is, they do not easily fit into common types of minerals.  They go in because they have to, but they wait until the last possible opportunity and they also take the first possible opportunity to \nleave.  \n\nTo use gold as an example, a granite intrusion that is cooling a \ncrystallizing may contain a tiny amount of gold.  All through the cooling melt, elements are coming together to make crystals, but none of the gold is, yet.  As the amount of liquid decreases, the relative amount of the gold in it goes up, so this is the first step in concentration.  The final bits of the granite to crystallize will be enriched in gold.  When the granite is finally solid, but still hot, ground water and water that used to be dissolved in the magma  will be circulating through cracks in the granite.  When that hot water encounters minerals containing the gold, the \nincompatibility of the gold will lead those minerals to break down more easily than their neighbors and release the gold into solution.  As the water moves away from the granite, it is now carrying the gold, which is even more concentrated than it was before.  The water begins to cool off and as it does minerals begin to precipitate. Again, gold will remain in the solution as long as possible, so it is often one of the last things to crystallize.  By then, it may be concentrated enough that it will grow its own crystals of pure gold (small cubes, octahedrons, and wire-like shapes) rather than trying to fit into other crystal structures.  These minerals are left behind in the cracks that the water was moving through, forming veins.  It is those veins that the miners then follow as they mine their ore (rocks containing the concentrated gold, silver, or other metals).
1129625
Here are some potential sources:\n\nhttp://www.bestcrystals.com/ulexite.htm\n\nhttp://www.northwestnatureshop.com/department/Rocks_and_Minerals/Rock_and_Mineral_Specimens/592.html\n\nI'm sure you could find more if you googled it like I did.
1167093
Fool's gold has a minute value as a iron ore and possibly for the sulfur. Other than that the pyrite (fool's gold) isn't worth a thing in individual amounts.
255970
Iron pyrite is often found in the same mineral environment as real gold. The differece  to the prospector is the weigh. When panning, the pyrite will leave the pan as the much heavier gold settles to the bottom. Pyrite is brittle and will form crystals, gold usually doesn't. If you have a large enough piece, you can scratch it and it will have a sulfurish smell.
213677
try this page ;-)\nhttp://www.gemstone.org/gem-by-gem/english/ruby.html