Visual identification is very difficult. Material from the Parker Mine occurrence is platy for the most part, with substantial textural variance from specimen to specimen. Specimen is 10 cm in maximum dimension. Photo by the author. Composition Table 16.
Chemical analyses of bementite.
Bementite is a manganese silicate hydroxide mineral. The composition is variable, and there is much solid solution among the octahedral cations, as shown by the analyses in Table 16 . The texture, as best it can be deduced from the available hand specimens, is that of a breccia wherein abundant bementite hosts large angular shards of sparser calcite. Barite is both present and extensively replaced in this assemblage, and growth patterns of the bementite commonly intersect at 90 o . Calcite is sparse.