Hematite

Mineral formula: Fe₂O₃

_Note: the 'hematite' used in jewelry, and often sold as magnetized items, is nothing of the sort and is an artificially created material, see Magnetic Hematite.

Mineral group: member of the Hematite group

Crystal system: trigonal

Crystal habit: Crystals generally thick to thin tabular, rarely prismatic or scalenohedral; also rarely rhombohedral, producing pseudo-cubic crystals. Often found in sub-parallel growths or as rosettes ("iron roses.") Sometimes in micaceous to platy masses. May be compact columnar or fibrous masses, sometimes radiating, or in reniform masses with a smooth fracture ("kidney ore"), and botryoidal and stalactic. Frequently in earthy masses, also granular, friable to compact, concretionary and oolitic. 

Cleavage: none observed

Fracture: irregular, uneven, subconchoidal

Color: steel gray to black in crystalline ores; dull to reddish in earthy fine-grained masses.

Luster: metallic, submetallic, dull, earthy

Diaphaneity: opaque

Moh’s scale hardness: 5 - 6

Streak: reddish brown

Specific gravity: 5.26

Named after: "blood stone," about 300-325 BCE by Theophrastus from the Greek, "αιματίτις λίθος" ("aematitis lithos"). It is possibly the first mineral ever named ending with a "-ite" suffix. Translated in 79 by Pliny the Elder to haematites, "bloodlike", in allusion to the vivid red color of the powder. The modern form evolved by authors frequently simplifying the spelling by excluding the "a." 

Geological occurrence: Large ore bodies of hematite are usually of sedimentary origin; also found in high-grade ore bodies in metamorphic rocks due to contact metasomatism, and occasionally as a sublimate on igneous extrusive rocks ("lavas") as a result of volcanic activity. It is also usually the cause of red soils all over the planet.

Energetic properties: According to Melody*, hematite is a “stone for the mind” helping you to figure things out, assisting memory, original thinking, and understanding mathematics and technical issues. It is useful for balancing and calming, and is good for the environment as well as the physical body.

*Melody (2008) Love is in the Earth, the Crystal & Mineral Encyclopedia. Earth Love Publishing, 976 pp.

Note: Magnetic “hematite" is an artificially created magnetic material that contains NO natural hematite. It is widely marketed (especially in jewelry) as 'magnetic hematite' or simply 'hematite'. Often a ferrite magnet with the magnetoplumbite structure.