Sphalerite (original) (raw)

Colour:

Yellow, light to dark brown, black, red-brown, colourless, light blue, rarely green

Lustre:

Adamantine, Resinous

Specific Gravity:

3.9 - 4.1

Name:

Originally called blende in 1546 by Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer). Known by a variety of chemical-based names subsequent to Agricola and before Glocker, including "zincum". Named Sphalerite in 1847 by Ernst Friedrich Glocker from the Greek σφαλεροζ "sphaleros" = treacherous, in allusion to the ease with which dark varieties were mistaken for galena, but yielded no lead.

Sphalerite Group.

Sphalerite, also known as blende or zinc blende, is the major ore of zinc. When pure (with little or no iron) it forms clear to white crystals (known as Cleiophane). Yellow to orange sphalerite is often called "golden sphalerite." Red shades of sphalerite are known as Ruby Blende or Ruby Jack. As iron content increases, sphalerite forms dark, opaque submetallic crystals (known as Marmatite or Black Jack).
Very rarely, green crystals owe their colour to trace amounts of Co (Henn & Hofmann, 1985; Rager et al., 1996).

Sphalerite may also contain considerable Mn, grading into alabandite. Samples containing up to 0.36 apfu (atoms per formula unit) Mn (21.4 wt.% MnO) have been described by Hurai & Huraiová (2011). It can also be Hg-rich and form a series with metacinnabar.

Sphalerite is an important source of rare metals like gallium (Ga) and indium (In), and the semi-metal germanium (Ge). The one from the Restauradora vein of the Capillitas deposit, Argentina, bears a record, at 24.89 wt% In (and 13.49 wt% Cu) it is, astonishingly, still a sphalerite (Márquez-Zavalía et al. 2024).

See "Best Minerals" article on the schalenblende variety, by Harjo Neutkens: https://www.mindat.org/a/best_schalenblende

According to Haussühl and Müller (1963), there are numerous polytypes; the ones identified by them are 3R (=3C); 2H, 4H, 6H; and 9R, 12R, 15R and 21R. Note that this can be taken to infer that “wurtzite” (all the H polytypes) is merely a series of polytypes of sphalerite!

Compare UM1993-16-S:CdInZn and UM1993-15-S:CdInZn.

Approved, 'Grandfathered' (first described prior to 1959)

2.CB.05a

2 : SULFIDES and SULFOSALTS (sulfides, selenides, tellurides; arsenides, antimonides, bismuthides; sulfarsenites, sulfantimonites, sulfbismuthites, etc.)
C : Metal Sulfides, M: S = 1: 1 (and similar)
B : With Zn, Fe, Cu, Ag, etc.

2.8.2.1

2 : SULFIDES
8 : AmXp, with m:p = 1:1

3.4.4

3 : Sulphides, Selenides, Tellurides, Arsenides and Bismuthides (except the arsenides, antimonides and bismuthides of Cu, Ag and Au, which are included in Section 1)
4 : Sulphides etc. of Group II metals other than Hg (Mg, Ca, Zn, Cd)

As of 2021 there are now IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols (abbreviations) for each mineral species, useful for tables and diagrams.

Please only use the official IMA–CNMNC symbol. Older variants are listed for historical use only.

Transparency:

Transparent, Translucent

Colour:

Yellow, light to dark brown, black, red-brown, colourless, light blue, rarely green

Comment:

Coloration of sphalerites from the Binntal, CH - varying from yellow to black for nearly identical iron contents - seems to be strongly influenced by the manganese content (Graeser, 1969).

Streak:

Pale yellow to brown.

Hardness:

VHN100=208 - 224 kg/mm2 - Vickers

Cleavage:

Perfect
Perfect {011}

Density:

3.9 - 4.1 g/cm3 (Measured) 4.096 g/cm3 (Calculated)

Birefringence:

May show strain induced birefringence

Reflectivity:

Graph shows reflectance levels at different wavelengths (in nm). Top of box is 100%. Peak reflectance is 19.6%.

Colour in reflected light:

Medium gray

Internal Reflections:

White, yellow, red, brown

Pleochroism:

Non-pleochroic

Common Impurities:

Fe,Mn,Cd,Hg,In,Tl,Ga,Ge,Sb,Sn,Pb,Ag,Co

Recorded ages:

Phanerozoic : 519 Ma to 0 Ma - based on 23 recorded ages.

Class (H-M):

43_m_ - Hextetrahedral

Cell Parameters:

a = 5.406 Å

Unit Cell V:

157.99 ų (Calculated from Unit Cell)

Crystal Atlas:

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ID	Species	Reference	Link	Year	Locality	Pressure (GPa)	Temp (K)
0000110	Sphalerite	Skinner B J (1961) Unit-cell edges of natural and synthetic sphalerites American Mineralogist 46 1399-1411		1961	synthetic	0	293
0018098	Sphalerite	de Jong W (1927) Marmatit und christophit _cod_database_code 1011232 Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie 66 515-515	1927	0	293
0018099	Sphalerite	de Jong W (1927) Marmatit und christophit _cod_database_code 1011233 Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie 66 515-515	1927	0	293
0018328	Sphalerite	Nitta E, Kimata M, Hoshino M, Echigo T, Hamasaki S, Nishida N, Shimizu M, Akasak T (2008) Crystal chemistry of ZnS minerals formed as high-temperature volcanic sublimates: matraite identical with sphalerite Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences 103 145-151	2008	Iwodake volcano, Satsuma-Iwojima, Kyushu, SW Japan	0	293

CIF Raw Data - click here to close

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Radiation - Copper Kα

Data Set:

Data courtesy of RRUFF project at University of Arizona, used with permission.

Powder Diffraction Data:

Comments:

ICDD 5-566 (synthetic). Similar data to that of cerianite-(Ce).

Simplified Chinese:闪锌矿

Traditional Chinese:閃鋅礦

Other Members of Sphalerite Group:

Associated Minerals Based on Photo Data:

Light colored sphalerite may fluoresce in blue or orange in LW. Fluoresces less strongly, sometimes not at all, in SW or MW.

Health Risks:

May be rich in some toxic elements, eg Cd, Hg.

An essential component of rock names highlighted in red, an accessory component in rock names highlighted in green.

• Ore
  • Cadmium ore
  • Zinc ore
    * Schalenblende
• Metamorphic rock
  • Very low to low-grade metamorphic rock
    * Phyllite
    * Quartz-sericite phyllite
  • Metasomatic-rock
    * Astorite

Showing 44 significant localities out of 26,518 recorded on mindat.org.

This map shows a selection of localities that have latitude and longitude coordinates recorded. Click on the symbol to view information about a locality. The symbol next to localities in the list can be used to jump to that position on the map.