ECG253

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

KAMPUS SAMARAHAN 2
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
EC1104D
IDENTIFICATION OF MINERALS.
NAME

METRIC NO.

NUR HAFIZAN BINTI ASMAIL

2013617608

NUR AMYRA HIDAYAH BINTI AMIRUL

2013224456

NORHAZERAH BINTI YUSSOP

2013251252

ZUBIR BIN SHIBLI

2013651848

MOHAMMAD SYAFIQ AKMAL BIN

ABDULLAH

2013431936

LECTURERS NAME: MADAM NADIA NATASHAH

DATE OF SUBMISSION: JANUARY 2015

ECG253

TITLE OF EXPERIMENT
Identification of minerals.
OBJECTIVES
To identify the types of mineral and its properties.
EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL
Mohs hardness scale, fluorescent minerals, magnifying glass, and light.
PROCEDURE
1. The materials are identified through the fluorescent minerals manual.
2. Determine the color of minerals by using the magnifying glass.
3. The streak of the minerals are determined by scratching the minerals to a
surface and examining the powder left behind using the magnifying glass.
4. The lustre and transparency of the minerals are determined by shining the
light to the minerals.
5. The hardness of the minerals are determined by scratching each of the
minerals using the minerals in the mohs hardness scale.
6. The data obtained is tabulated.

ECG253

MINERAL

NAME

Selenite
rose
calcite

Light brown

White

Grey -white

White

Vitreous

Opaque

Grey-brown
cream
Grey-light
green

White

Dull

Opaque

Septarian
nodule
wernerite

White

Metallic

Opaque

scheelite

Orange- black

White

Dull

Opaque

willemite

Black-green

Brown

Metallic

Opaque

14

aragonite

White

White

Dull

Opaque

flourite

White- black
light green

White

Silky

Semitransparency

3
8

COLOR

STREAK

LUSTRE TRANSPARENCY
Vitreous
Opaque

HARDNESS
6

DATA
TABLE 1

Figure 1

PRECAUTION
1. The minerals should not be scratched too hard when finding the streak,
because it may cause damage to the minerals.
2. The eye must be perpendicular to the magnifying glass to get the exact
color of the streak.
3. The minerals to be tested should be done according to the level of the
mohs hardness scale, so the hardness can be determined.
4. When handling the minerals, care should be taken so that the minerals did
not break because some of the minerals are brittle.
DISCUSSION
The color of the minerals is always given in any description of possible
choices since it is the first and most obvious attributes. However, most
minerals may exhibit a variety of colors and a minerals chemical
composition may be influence for the color results.
The color of the powder of the mineral is the streak and sometimes the color
is entirely different from their powder. From the table 1, all the streak of the
minerals is white except for willemite which have a brown color.

The degree or appearance in which the surface of the mineral reflects light is
lustre. Terms used to describe lustre include metallic, vitreous,resinous,silky
and dull. From table 1, wemerite and willemite are metallic because it is
reflected the light, the minerals that vitreous are selenite rose and calcite
because it is like broken glass. Also, the minerals that has no lustre visible
which is dull are septarian nodule, scheelite and aragonite. Lastly is flourite
with silky lustre which is silky shine in fibrous mineral.
The degree of the minerals which is allows light to pass through it called
transparency. It is can be described as opaque, semi-transparent,transparent,
and translucent. But, all the minerals shown an opaque transparency which
light is prevented from passing through the minerals and nothing can be seen
through it. However, flourite is semi-transparent that can allow light to pass
partially and objects on the other side are seen hazy through the mineral.
Hardness is a measure of the resistance to scratching and the hardness of the
minerals is based upon to the standard scale, known as the Mohs Scale of
Hardness. The scale number for selenite rose, calcite,aragonite and flourite
are 6 (orthoclase). The minerals with scale number 7 (quartz) are septarian
nodule and scheelite. Also, wemerite and willemite are both number 3
(calcite) and number 8 (topaz).

CONCLUSION
A mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic substance with a characteristic
chemical composition and can be identified based on its physical properties
that can be observed or determined by simple tests. In this experiment, the
mineral properties used for identification are color, streak, lustre,
transparency and hardness. Then, most minerals may exhibit a variety of
colors, sometime the colors of streak is entirely different from their powder.
Furthermore, each mineral have their own description of lustre, the minerals
hardness that measure based upon to the Mohs Scale and the transparency
that only shown opaque and semi-transparent for this experiment. Although,
all the general characteristics of minerals is help us to understand the
identification of minerals, types of mineral and its properties correctly.
REFERENCE
1. Mdm.Nadia Natashah, Laboratory 1:Identification of minerals,
Faculty of Civil Engineering
2. geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml
Tittle: mohs Hardness scale: Testing the Resistance to being scratched.
3. What are mineral, types, properties and examples Retrieved from
education-portal.com/academy/lesson/what-are-minerals-typesproperties-examples.html on 2nd January 2015