Sphalerite
Collection:
Cornish Mineral Heritage
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Fact sheet

Sphalerite

Sphalerite or blende is zinc sulphide and is the main ore of the metal zinc.

In Cornwall, sphalerite was found in many mines, often closely associated with lead-bearing minerals. The majority of Cornwall's zinc was recovered from mines whose main product was lead, helping to sustain them when the production of lead alone became unprofitable.

This specimen of massive, pale-coloured sphalerite came from Lambriggan, a small lead-zinc mine 4km east of St Agnes, which was worked in the mid-1840s and again in the late 1920s. The main early use of zinc was in combination with copper to make the alloy brass, but the corrosion-resistant coating of iron and later steel would soon become its most important application. By 1850 the British galvanising industry was using 10,000 tons of zinc a year for the protective coating of steel.

Chemical Formula: ZnS

Specimen no. TRURI: 801.1521
Location: Lambriggan
Grid Reference: SW 761 511

Mindat http://www.mindat.org/min-3727.html

Additional images
 
  • Sphalerite 3 cm across
  • Sphalerite (with yellow chalcopyrite) 3.5 cm across
  • Sphalerite 3.5 cm across
  • Sphalerite 7 cm across
  • Sphalerite 7 cm across
Map
 
50.317214, -5.146459
Precision:
Good
About this collection
 
Cornish Mineral Heritage

This Collection focuses on Cornwall and West Devon’s mineralogical and mining heritage.  The specimens it features are drawn from the collection of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC) held at the Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM). 

This collaborative project involving the RCM, the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site and The Open University explores how access to the RIC’s mineral collection and the stories it can tell can be widened using digital technology.  It includes radioactive minerals from Cornwall that would otherwise be inaccessible to the public for health and safety reasons.

Sample details

Collection: Cornish Mineral Heritage
Type
mineral
Category
primary
Category guide  
Category Guide
Title
Refers to any word or phrase that appears in the individual rock names. Names are generally descriptive; they allow users to search for broad terms like ‘granite’ as well as more specific names such as ‘breccia’. However, the adjacent descriptions of the specimens captures a wider range of general words and phrases and is a more powerful search tool.
Description
Refers to any word or phrase that appears anywhere in the descriptions of the specimens
Accessory minerals
Minerals that occur in very low abundance in a rock. They are usually not visible with the naked eye and contribute perhapssver, they often dominate the rare elements such as platinum group metals.
Rock-forming minerals
Minerals that make up the bulk of all rock samples and are also the ones used in rock classi?cation.
Timescale
Selecting one or more period, for example 'Jurassic'.
Theme
A term used to group together related samples that are not already gathered into a single Collection. For instance, there is a ‘SW England granites’ theme that includes such rock types as granite, hydrothermal breccia, skarn and vein samples.
Category
A general term used to label a rock sample. It is a useful way of grouping similar samples throughout a collection. Category names are often, but not exclusively, common rock names (e.g. granite, basalt, dolerite, gabbro, greisen, skarn, gneiss, amphibolite, limestone, sandstone).
Owner
The owner of the sample that appears in the collection. For example, NASA owns all the samples that appear in the Moon Rocks collection
We would like to thank the following for the use of this sample:

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Cornish Mineral Heritage