Alabama
This page collects together all the minerals we have from the state of Alabama.
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I can’t cover the whole history of geology or mineralogy of the whole of the state of Alabama, but I can hopefully begin with some of the basics.
The state gemstone of Alabama is the ‘Star Blue Quartz’, although there is very little information online on what that actually means. It is likely an included form of quartz with inclusions of riebeckite or crocidolite causing a blue colouration. Whether or not the star refers to asterism, I cannot say.
The state mineral of Alabama is hematite, an iron ore – between 1840 and 1975 around 375 million tons of hematite were mined.
The state rock of Alabama is the Sylacauga marble, sometimes known as Alabama Marble. It is a pure white marble found in Talladega county and is widely used in a range of well known American buildings.
Salt Creek Falls is one of the most popular mineral hunting localities in Alabama, with the area below the falls being a large gravel beach on which many minerals can be found.
Alabama produces bentonite clay, sand, gravel and crushed stone for industry, lime, iron oxide, portland cement, and salts. There are deposits of other minerals, of course, but they may simply not be economically viable.
There are a small amount of private gold prospectors and panning sites operating in Alabama, too.
Further reading
We may have specimens from specific locales around Alabama including:
AlabamaYou can also click here to go back to our main USA page.