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Symbol: Be
Beryllium does not occur in the native state.
Its abundance in the Earth's crust is 2.8 parts per million by weight, 4.6 parts per million by moles
(ChC).
Among the common rock-forming minerals, beryllium content is generally highest in white
micas, mostly muscovite, which contain up to
10 ppm beryllium, and cordierite. The principal source materials for the
granites that spawn beryllium-bearing pegmatites are the
clay and mica-rich marine sediments that
form shale. Micas remain abundant through
metamorphism up to the high metamorphic grade that produces schists. When
such schists reach the pressure-temperature conditions at which they begin to melt,
the white micas decompose over a narrow range of temperature, transferring some of their
trace elements, including beryllium, to the magmas so formed. Muscovite-rich
schists may generate granite magmas
containing about 6 ppm beryllium. The processes that crystallize granite and
lead to the formation of pegmatites may enrich beryllium sufficiently to saturate the pegmatite-forming magmas in
beryl. The beryllium content of a few notable
beryl-rich pegmatites can be as high as 205 ppm beryllium
(R&M 90.2.138-153).
Beryllium-bearing minerals include:
Oxides
chrysoberyl
Hydroxides
behoite
clinobehoite
Phosphates
hydroxylherderite
roscherite
zanazziite
Nesosilicates
beryllite
euclase
gadolinite
hingganite
Sorosilicates
barylite
bertrandite
leucophanite
Cyclosilicates
beryl
Inosilicates
bavenite
epididymite
eudidymite
Phyllosilicates
bityite
Tectosilicates
danalite
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