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Two commercially important halide minerals are halite and fluorite. The former is a major source of sodium chloride, in parallel with sodium chloride extracted from sea water or brine wells. Fluorite is a major source of hydrogen fluoride , complementing the supply obtained as a byproduct of the production of fertilizer.
Halite is also often used both residentially and municipally for managing ice. Because brine (a solution of water and salt) has a lower freezing point than pure water, putting salt or saltwater on ice that is below 0 °C (32 °F) will cause it to melt—this effect is called freezing-point depression .
Talc in powdered form, often combined with corn starch, is used as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thickening agent and lubricant. It is an ingredient in ceramics, paints, and roofing material. It is a main ingredient in many cosmetics. [6] It occurs as foliated to fibrous masses, and in an exceptionally rare crystal form.
Trapped in a time capsule the same size as the diameter of a human hair, the ore-forming liquid in this inclusion was so hot and contained so much dissolved solids that when it cooled, crystals of halite, sylvite, gypsum, and hematite formed. As the samples cooled, the fluid shrank more than the surrounding mineral, and created a vapor bubble.
Cryolite (Na 3 Al F 6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is a rare mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987. [8] It is used in the reduction ("smelting") of aluminium, in pest control, and as a dye.
Above this temperature, liquid water saturated with salt can exist in equilibrium with hydrohalite. Hydrohalite has a strong positive temperature coefficient of solubility, unlike halite. [2] Hydrohalite decomposes at 0.1°C, giving a salty brine and solid halite. Under pressure, hydrohalite is stable between 7,900 and 11,600 atmospheres pressure.
A halite, also known as a halogenite, [1] is an oxyanion containing a halogen in a III oxidation state. It is the conjugate base of a halous acid . The known halites are chlorite , bromite , and iodite .
Carnallite is an uncommon double chloride mineral that only forms under specific environmental conditions in an evaporating sea or sedimentary basin. It is mined for both potassium and magnesium and occurs in the evaporite deposits of Carlsbad, New Mexico ; the Paradox Basin in Colorado and Utah ; Stassfurt , Germany ; the Perm Basin , Russia ...