Preface

The Republic of Macedonia (also termed R. Macedonia in this monograph) lies in the Alpine–Balkan–Carpathian–Dinaride collision belt. The country is rich in minerals, dispersed in a large number of oxide, sulfide, carbonate, sulfate, silicate and other types of ore deposits. For instance, there is a famous ore deposit Alšar (internationally recognised as Allchar), near Kavadarci, where 44 mineral species have been identified, five of them (thallium minerals) present only at this locality in the world. An additional two unique zinc oxide minerals have also been found in the vicinity of Nežilovo. Accordingly, the total number of endemic minerals identified in the Republic of Macedonia is seven.

Despite these rich ore deposits in a relatively small geographical area, the total number of minerals present in the Republic of Macedonia had not been fully established until recently. There were some incomplete mineral collections, but no complete record of the minerals from the R. Macedonia was established. Therefore, to prepare the monograph of Minerals from the Republic of Macedonia, the systematic process of the collection, separation, identification, spectroscopic and structural characterisation of local minerals was undertaken. The results are presented in this monograph.

The first part (entitled Introduction to Mineralogy) presents the terms mineral and mineralogy, mineral formation processes, crystalline state and chemical compositions of minerals, crystallography, chemistry of minerals, important physical properties of minerals, methods for mineral study and identification and mineral classification.

The second part (entitled Minerals from the Republic of Macedonia) concerns the geological characteristics of the R. Macedonia and the mineralogical deposits from which the minerals were collected as well as the results of the detailed study of 78 various mineral species. A brief description of the main characteristics of 66 mineral deposits is presented. The origin of all studied individual minerals is also described.

The structural and spectroscopic studies were performed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman vibrational spectroscopy, respectively. Furthermore, the chemical composition of the minerals was determined by using an electron X-ray microprobe analyser (details for the used instruments and methods are presented in Experimental Section, see page 634). The results are published in 114 scientific papers mostly in international journals (see section 2.4).

Native elements and various types of oxide, hydroxide, halide, sulfide, arsenide, antimonide, carbonate, sulfate, molybdate, phosphate, arsenate and silicate minerals originating from the R. Macedonia were detected, identified and characterised. Identification was based on comparing the results of our study with the corresponding literature data for the analogous mineral species originating from other localities in the world. In general, the comparison of the data was often challenging for a number of reasons including: the temperatures at which experiments were performed; the instruments’ resolutions; the studied vibrational spectral region and/or the 2q region of the registered X-ray powder diffraction patterns; the specimen quantity used; sample preparation, particle size and shape; and the locality where the specimen was collected from.

The results for each individual mineral are subdivided into two sections. In the first, the description of the well-known physical and chemical properties of the corresponding mineral types (including chemical formula, name origin, colour, hardness, density, cleavage, optical characteristics, crystal forms, occurrence, etc.) is presented in the introducing table and in the first paragraph of the text. In the second paragraph of the text, the characteristics of the corresponding minerals collected from various localities across the R. Macedonia are provided (e.g. occurrence, association, colour, dimension). The infrared and Raman spectra, d-values and the unit cell parameters derived from the X-ray powder diffraction data for all studied individual minerals are presented as well.

The number of currently identified and described minerals from the R. Macedonia that were unavailable and not studied systematically by us was 48. A short description of the physical and chemical properties and a complete list of the corresponding references concerning these minerals are also presented.

The monograph is illustrated with about 680 colour photographs for all studied minerals. The photographs of minerals were taken from the mineral collection deposited at the Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, SS Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (where about 300 mineral samples are available, including all studied 78 mineral species) and from the mineral collection at the Macedonian Museum of Natural History, Skopje. Only the photographs of the samples taken from the latter mineral collection are denoted as MMNH.

Authors