Carbonates Carbonates Carbonates are minerals combined with carbon and oxygen, including calcite, dolomite, smithsonite, malachite, and cerrusite.
Calcite is one of the most abundant and widespread minerals in Kentucky.
Calcite is the chief mineral in limestone, where it is generally in the form of small, broken fragments of fossil shells. Large, well-developed crystals are generally found in veins, commonly associated with faults. Numerous quarries throughout the State contain various nodules and geodes with calcite crystals. The Lexington Quarry Company in Nicholasville and the Caldwell Stone Company in Danville have discovered numerous scalenohedral calcite crystals along veins in the quarries. Vein calcite is usually associated with fluorite, barite, galena, and sphalerite.