What it probably is, Purple stuff? No, not fluorite.. Options

[NewRockHounder]

After doing some book research I came upon "Purpurite," based on the description provided, IE occurs as crusts, compact, granular masses, brittle, slightly powdery consistency - it 99.8% matches what I have. Why did I leave off .2%? - Because, I don't have any means, currently, to do a scratch test. Book says it will leave a dark red streak.

A ceramic tile would work for a scratch test, right? Just to remind ya's what the deuce I'm talking about, provided some pics, again. (The first pic looks different then the rest, because it's sprayed with clear coat as not to crumble.. more so than it had)

[Dave S.]

I agree with Coalbunny. You should not rule out copper minerals just yet ( even if you did a flame test) (did you try one?). Purpurite should not have the BLUE colors that we see in the pic. The purple powdery stripe on the blue part could be Purpurite, but the identification of that may require a look under a microscope, by an experienced mineralogist.

Did you try the STREAK TEST? If it crumbles that bad, it should be good to try a streak test. ( carefully crush it on white paper with a hammer, don't "hammer" it, just grind and crush it with the hammer head)

I guess I should ask here: --- Are the blue parts, and the purple parts the same mineral? (it appears they may be 2 different minerals, hard to tell from the pic.)

I have not done it yet, but I heard that the Colorado School of Mines Museum does identification, maybe even for free. I am going to find out. I have several pieces that I wish to ID, or verify my own identification ( like the Florencite-(Ce) in rare-earth forum). I can let you know how that goes.

The best things for you to do for home tests is:
Streak Test and
Flame test (even if it has no copper, it may turn the flame a color that will help us.) Use tweezers and a glove, in a dark, ventilated area. Under a blow torch flame (use butane instead of mapp gas) you might see other colors.

Red/ pink -- might mean Strontium, or Lithium. Green -- copper, etc. Purple -- Potassium. And so on.