Mineral necessarily constant for all sides, which is a function of its structure; crystallographic weakness renders some directions softer than others. An example of this property exists in kyanite, which has a Mohs hardness of 5½ parallel to [001] but 7 parallel to [100]. The most common scale of measurement is the ordinal Mohs hardness scale. Defined by ten indicators, a mineral with a higher index scratches those below it. The scale ranges from talc, a phyllosilicate, to diamond, a carbon polymorph that is the hardest natural material. The scale is provided below: Lustre indicates how light reflects from the mineral's
Monazite Monazite Monazite is a reddish-brown phosphate mineral containing rare-earth metals. It occurs usually in small isolated crystals. It has a hardness of 5.0 to 5.5 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness and is relatively dense, about 4.6 to 5.7 g/cm. There are at least four different kinds of monazite, depending on relative elemental composition of the mineral: The elements in parentheses are listed in the order of their relative proportion within the mineral: lanthanum is the most common rare-earth element in monazite-(La), and so forth. Silica (SiO) is present in trace amounts, as well as small amounts of uranium