What is Beryllium?

Beryllium Highly Sought After Chemical Element

Beryllium is a chemical element discovered in 1798.  It's only found naturally when combined with other elements in approximately thirty different minerals.  The most important are bertrandite, chrysoberyl and beryl.

Beryllium is strong steely grey coloured brittle metal with many highly desirable properties.  One of the lightest of all metals, it has one of the highest melting points.

The mineral bertrandite is a constituent of the rock known as tiffany stone.  It also contains beryllium.  For this reason the vast majority of tiffany stone is crushed in order to extract this valuable chemical element.