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Common borate salts include sodium metaborate (NaBO 2) and borax. Borax is soluble in water, so mineral deposits only occur in places with very low rainfall. Extensive deposits were found in Death Valley and shipped with twenty-mule teams from 1883 to 1889. In 1925, deposits were found at Boron, California on the edge of the Mojave Desert.
The Borate Minerals are minerals which contain a borate anion group. The borate (BO 3) units may be polymerised similar to the SiO 4 unit of the silicate mineral class. This results in B 2 O 5, B 3 O 6, B 2 O 4 anions as well as more complex structures which include hydroxide or halogen anions. [2] The [B(O,OH) 4] − anion exists as well.
Borax (also referred to as sodium borate, tincal (/ ˈ t ɪ ŋ k əl /) and tincar (/ ˈ t ɪ ŋ k ər /)) is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated or anhydrous borate of sodium, with the chemical formula Na 2 H 20 B 4 O 17. [1] [a] It is a colorless crystalline solid that dissolves in water to make a basic solution.
Borax (Na 2 B 4 O 5 (OH) 4 · 8 H 2 O [2]) is a borate mineral found in evaporite deposits of alkaline lacustrine environments and as a surface efflorescence in arid regions. It is the chief mineral mined from the deposits at Boron, California and nearby locations, and is the chief source of commercial borax.
The borax deposit here was discovered in 1913, by John K. Suckow, [4] who when drilling for water found a deposit of what he believed to be gypsum. Further testing revealed it was the colemanite form of borax. Francis Marion "Borax" Smith bought the claim for his Pacific Coast Borax Company. [5] [6] Mining at the site by shafts began in the 1920s.
Media in category "Borate minerals" This category contains only the following file. Watermelon Tourmaline.JPG 2,560 × 1,920; 2.3 MB
After discovery of Borax deposits here by Aaron and Rosie Winters in 1881, business associates William Tell Coleman and Francis Marion Smith subsequently obtained claims to these deposits, opening the way for "large-scale" borax mining in Death Valley. [3] Coleman constructed Harmony Borax Works and production of borax started in late 1883. [4]
Sassolite is a borate mineral, specifically the mineral form of boric acid. It is usually white to gray, and colourless in transmitted light. It can also take on a yellow colour from sulfur impurities, or brown from iron oxides. [2]