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Mineralati

Minerals

Antimony (Native)

antimony (native)

Sb

Antimony Locality: Monarch Antimony mine, Gravelotte, Murchison Range, Limpopo Province, South Africa (Locality at mindat.org) Size: 3.2 x 2.6 x 2.2 cm. An excellent specimen of brilliant, complex native Antimony crystals up to about 1 cm. Much of the matrix is covered by these crystals, some of which are broken and some of which are the faces, as revealed by cleavage of adjacent crystals in the intergrown mass. Ex. Charlie Key.

Robert M. Lavinsky / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

Overview

Native antimony is a mineral belonging to the group of native elements, with properties equivalent to those of the antimony element obtained by processing its ores. The name comes from the Latin antimonium. For centuries, the term antimony was also used to refer to stibnite or antimonite, the most common mineral containing this element, from which it was typically extracted. In mineralogy, the official name is simply antimony, although, as with other native elements, it is often referred to as native antimony to avoid ambiguity. It is unclear where native antimony was first discovered, although the Sala silver mine in Västmanland, Sweden, is considered the type locality.

Identification characteristics

  • Mohs hardness 3.3

Scientific references

  1. Antimony (Native) — Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1134295 Link
  2. Antimony (Native) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_antimony Link