Bronzite

Rather than a distinct species, it is really a ferriferous variety of enstatite, which owing to partial alteration has acquired a bronze-like sub-metallic luster on the cleavage surfaces.

[2] The ferriferous varieties are liable to a particular kind of alteration, known as schillerization, which results in the separation of the iron as very fine films of oxide and hydroxides along the cleavage cracks of the mineral.

[3] Bronzite is sometimes cut and polished, usually in convex forms, for small ornamental objects, but its use for this purpose is less extensive than that of hypersthene[citation needed].

Masses sufficiently large for cutting are found in the norite of the Kupferberg in the Fichtel Mountains, and in the serpentine of Kraubat near Leoben in Styria.

The typical locality is Baste in the Radauthal, Harz, where patches of pale greyish-green bastite are embedded in a darker-colored serpentine.