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Excerpts of the monograph

Contents

Excerpts from the reviewers

This monograph is the first extended work in which the data on minerals of the Republic of Macedonia have been generalized for worldwide readers’ audience. From other hand, the monograph contains general introduction to mineralogy that makes it useful for people who start their education in this science: students of geology, amateur mineralogists and mineral collectors. Thus the monograph is dual-purpose book…

Especially valuable is the chapter where the description of 66 the most interesting mineral localities of the R. Macedonia is given. This information was almost unknown for the worldwide community of both professional and amateur mineralogists and this book mainly fills up this blank. Quantitative chemical composition, XRPD data with unit cell parameters, IR and/or Raman spectra obtained by the authors of the monograph for all mineral species and varieties known in the R. Macedonia are presented…

We can enjoy many color photographs of minerals from the R. Macedonia. It seems valuable because mineral specimens from this country are not well-known and not widespread in foreign museums and private collections, and readers find much new information and impressions from these pictures.

Igor Pekov

The monograph about Macedonian minerals is written in unique way and its publishing is extraordinary mission. Appearance of such regional mineralogy book, with many data about spectroscopic and crystallographic properties presents very important reference not just for experts of different profile, but also for interested amateurs who tend to complete their knowledge and arising consciousness about the importance of natural resources, particularly mineral sources. These are the main reasons to assume this manuscript as crucial work, not just for the R. Macedonia, but also precious contribution in description of minerals and its occurrences. Such effort is extremely rare, even in countries with more extended history of mineral exploration…

Numerous experts and amateurs will wait happily and anxiously for printed version of this book.

Vladimir Bermanec

This monograph is an exceptional scientific work in the field of mineralogy and complementary disciplines (geology, petrology, geochemistry, mine localities) both, from the point of view of its originality as well as its complexity. Its content and concept offers an extraordinary opportunity for the scientists and other enthusiasts in mineralogy to learn more about the localities and mineral wealth of the R. Macedonia as well as to introduce with the results of the experimental study of the collected minerals. The beautiful color photographs of the minerals enable the readers to feel the marvelous beauty of the minerals from the R. Macedonia.

Risto Stojanov

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

Introduction

A monograph entitled Minerals from the Republic of Macedonia with an Introduction to Mineralogy fully comprises the conducted scientific investigations regarding the various collected mineral species from the Republic of Macedonia (78 species). In addition, it also provides full geological description of the localities where the specimens were collected from (66 localities). The monograph represents the first systematized, detailed study shedding light on the mineralogical, spectroscopic, structural and analytical aspects of the mineralogical wealth of R. Macedonia. To the best of our knowledge, the monograph is the first world book merging all these mineralogical features and country minerals’ localities. Therefore, its appearance was National interest since it reflects the mineralogical heritage of one country (R. Macedonia).

It represents important interdisciplinary material for the scientists and students in the fields of geology and mineralogy, crystal chemistry, vibrational spectroscopy, structural chemistry etc. In addition, the amateur mineralogists and mineral collectors found the book as very interesting and helpful.  

The monograph is fully written in English and printed in color on 664 pages (230×300 mm format). The text is combined and presented among 680 wonderful breath-taking mineral photos, 257 illustrations, 294 tables and 443 cited references. It summarizes the authors’ investigations carried out in the last 25 years published in 115 original scientific articles, more than half of them published in the most-prestigious impact factor journals.

The authors of the monograph are: Acad. Gligor Jovanovski (Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje), Prof. Dr. Blažo Boev (Goce Delčev University, Faculty of Natural and Technical Sciences, Štip) and Prof. Dr. Petre Makreski (SS Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Institute of Chemistry, Skopje).

The photographs are taken by Robert Jankuloski (Audio Engineering Academy ESRA, Skopje) whereas the author of the design is Ladislav Cvetkovski (SS Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Skopje). The referees of the book are world well-established mineralogists: Prof. Dr. Igor Pekov (Faculty of Geology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow), Acad. Vladimir Bermanec (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Faculty of Natural Sciences, Zagreb) and Prof. Dr. Risto Stojanov (SS Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Mining and Geology, Štip).

The monograph was promoted in November 2012. The publisher and co-publisher are Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Skenpoint, AD, Skopje, respectively.