OMG SHINY! - Peacock Ore.

I wanna see your...

It finally happened: I found a pop song that disgusted me to the core of my very being. Katy Perry was tolerable before I heard "Peacock;" put bluntly, she has turned a bird forever associated with majesty and divinity into an innuendo on par with the common chicken. Seriously, Katy Perry, what did peacocks ever do to you?

Peacock ore, however, does not ruin the peacock's majesty:

Peacock ore, AKA bornite, is a sulfide with the chemical formula Cu5FeS4 - that is, it contains both copper and iron, both very colorful minerals in their own rights. Iron usually gives things a reddish hue (but be careful-other things can do this, too); copper usually gives something a blue-green color. The result when they're mixed is a copper ore with one of the prettiest lusters of any industrial stone out there.



Bornite is around 63% copper, the single most colorful metal on the planet. This makes it a valuable ore for, well, anyone interested in working with copper. It is also popular for jewelry despite its industrial uses. (See tomorrow's entry for yet another extremely common ore used in jewelry.) It is also used in crystal mysticism to inspire and amplify the crown chakra (associated with the color purple). The stone keeps the peacock's spirit, at least.

Peacock ore does the bird justice. Keep Katy Perry's song away from me.