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Shungite is one of those interesting rocks. What is shungite? Let's start at its beginning.
Oil shale is a sedimentary rock containing organic matter from marine bacteria and algae, but can even contain larger animals such as trilobites and clam-like brachiopods. The amount of organic matter in oil shale is significant enough that oil shale can actually burn. For this amount of organic material to build up over time, the conditions must have been right to prevent decomposition.
At some point, around 2 billion years ago, some erupting volcanic material came into contact with some oil shale in what is now Shunga, Russia. The interaction between the volcanic material and the oil shale metamorphosed the oil shale into shungite.
This could make Shungite a metamorphic rock, but its chemical makeup is usually homogeneous. So, maybe it's a mineral. But it doesn't have a crystalline structure and it comes from organic material, so it can't be a mineral. Sooooo, because it's almost a mineral... it's classified as a mineraloid. (That's convenient.)
Almost forgot about the pendant... it's a 20x20x7mm shungite stone set in sterling silver. It's raw, dark and shiny.
