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Hematite has certain magnetic qualities, such as being paramagnetic (meaning it is attracted to magnetic fields), but I have read that if you heat it up it becomes strongly magnetic.

But I have a string of magnetic hematite beads. If they are magnetic, does that mean someone has heated them? Or is hematite only magnetic while it is hot? How do you get hematite to stay magnetic?

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The magnetic haematite beads commonly sold as being good for you in some ill defined way are actually a mixture of haematite and magnetite. The magnetic field is generated by the magnetite.

At room temperature haematite is weakly ferromagnetic but not enough to be easily noticeable. It is only paramagnetic above 948K.

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  • $\begingroup$ How can you mix hematite and magnetite into one substance? $\endgroup$ – bgmCoder Sep 15 '16 at 16:47
  • $\begingroup$ @bgmCoder: I'm sure you could sinter them together. Specific information is hard to Google given the large number of new age web sites that a Google for magnetic hematite finds. $\endgroup$ – John Rennie Sep 15 '16 at 17:02
  • $\begingroup$ Well, I did find this: mindat.org/min-35948.html which says that "magnetic hematite" is really some synthetic material containing ferrite and not hematite at all. But I believe this is the answer. $\endgroup$ – bgmCoder Sep 15 '16 at 17:04

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