What are borates in mineralogy ?

Borates : definition

Borates compose one subclass of the mineralogical class of "carbonates, nitrates, borates". This subclass comprises the minerals built up from the anionic complex BO33-. A large majority of borates are minerals from desert areas where they are formed by evaporation from salt lakes and closed seas rich in borate brines (of hydrothermal origin - volcanic probable). A borated deposit is usually made up of many borates, associated with halite and gypsum. They are light minerals, often with a density of less than 2 (except for colemanite where it reaches 2.4), of low hardness and generally white in color. Among the hundred or so known borates (130 to date), only 4 are common and have a real interest : kernite, borax (mineral in photo © Rock Currier), ulexite and colemanite. Borates, especially borax, are widely used. Its main customers are the glass industry (fiberglass, glass wool), ceramics (certain porcelain enamels), the chemical industry (preparation of fertilizers, detergents and weedkillers) and metallurgy (fluxes and metal oxide solvent).

ReCaptcha

This service is used to secure web forms of our website and required if you want to contact us. By accepting it you agree to Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a service used on our website that tracks, reports traffic and measures how users interact with our website content in order for us to improve it and provide better services.

Facebook

Our website allows you to like or share its content on Facebook social network. By activating and using it you agree to Facebook's privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy/cookies/

YouTube

Integrated videos provided by YouTube are used on our website. By accepting to watch them you agree to Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Twitter

Integrated tweets and share services of Twitter are used on our website. By accepting and using these you agree to Twitter's privacy policy: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-cookies

PInterest

Our website allows you to share its content on PInterest social network. By activating and using it you agree to PInterest's privacy policy: https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy/