ORNAMENTAL STONES

ORNAMENTAL STONES, rocks, minerals and mineral aggregates, having decorative, aesthetic and technological properties that determine their utilization in the manufacture of decorative and artistic items and jewelry. Some O.s. are also used as exclusive cladding stones, and vice versa (e.g. marmorized limestone of Yangelsky Deposit, serpentinites of Kiryabinsky Deposit, stromatolithic limestones of Inzersky Deposit, black dolerites of Shugurovskoye deposit; all of them are located in the RB). The Urals is the key place in the RF where O.s. are produced. Jasper (RB, Orenb., Sverdl., Chelyab. obl.), listvenite, serpentinite, rhodonite (RB, Sverdl. obl.) and malachite (Sverdl. and Chelyab. obl., RB) are famous all over the world, ophicalcite, amazonite (Chelyab. obl.), selenite (Perm obl.), citrine, morion (Sverdl. Obl.), agate (Sverdl., Chelyab obl.), colored fluorite (RB), lemesite, and aventurine quartzite (RB, Chelyab. obl.) are also mined. The manifestations of jade, rock crystal, colored and patterned silicon were detected in Bashkortostan, as well as petrified wood, marble onyx, selenite, blue anhydrite, talcum steatite. Various types of the following mineral raw materials, which are not traditional O.s., are used in the fabrication of decorative and artistic items: vein quartz, quartzite, marmorized limestone, porphyrite, dolerite, tuffite, and dense brown iron. Various types of jasper are widely spread in Uchalinsky, Abzelilovsky, Baymaksky, Khaibullinsky rns; some of their varieties (Kalkanskaya, Muldakayevskaya, Aushkulskaya, etc) are unique, products made of them decorate the museums of Hermitage (St. Petersburg), Louvre (Paris), etc. Listvenites of Mindyak Deposit and other manifestations of Uchalinsky rn differ in brightness and purity of the green spots of fuxite against the white carbonate-quartz background  and  are  considered a standard of ornamental listvenite. Avanturine quartzites (red, honey-yellow with sparkling glitter caused by the scales of mica, red color is caused by finely dispersed hematitis) were found in the Zigalginskaya Suite of the Yurmatin era: occurrences at Kirelskoye and Malinovogorskoye deposits (Beloretsky Raion). By decorative properties, O.s. of these manifestations are close to the best in the RF adventurine quartzites of Taganai Deposit (Chelyab. Obl.). The rhodonites  of  Yuzhno-Faizullinskoye  deposit (one of the largest in the RF; Baymaksky Raion) are characterized by creamy, pinkish-gray tones; there are classical pink and crimson  varieties  with  veins,  spots  and dendrites of black manganese oxides. Lemesites vary by their peculiar ring and columnar pattern of fossilized remains of stromatolites; the most interesting are the multi-coloured greenish-yellow-red varieties, widely spread in the area of Inzer and Assy selos of Beloretsky Raion, etc. At the Suranskoye Deposit of fluorite, along with green, bluish-green, reddish, orange and purple colour there are rare blue varieties, especially beautiful are the fluorites with zonal colour. Gypsum, anhydrites, patterned siliceous nodules in carbonate layers, marmorized limestones of reef masses, located in the plain area of the Republic, are promising for utilization as O.s.