Monazite
an ore of cerium metals, consisting of cerium-lanthanum-didymium phosphate, (Ce, La, Di,) PO4, and containing thorium and other rare earth metals. The thorium content varies from nothing up to 18 per cent. thorium oxide.
Monazite occurs either as yellowish brown and translucent or dull brown and opaque. S.G. 4.9 to 5.3, hardness 5½.
River sands frequently contain this mineral in small amounts, this source city of Italy, 58 miles S. of Turin. Here MONDOVI (mōn-dō-vē'), a cathedral being worked commercially in Brazil and April 22, 1796, the Sardinians were total- North and South Carolina. The ore is ly defeated by Napoleon. Pop. about mined in many parts of the United 16 States, in the southern Urals and in Norway. Thorium is used in the manufacture of incandescent gas mantles and cerium for pyrophoric alloys.