Polybasite Mineral

Hey dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day full of interesting experiences! Today I would like to go into a little more detail about a mineral and hope you are able to expand your knowledge.

Two different specimens of the mineral polybasite can be seen here and as should be noticed at first glance, the black color or a metallic shine is one of the most important properties and the rarity varies depending on the location. The current name can be traced back to the mineralogist Gustav Rose (1798 - 1873) who had decided to name it after the Greek word poly for many and basis for base and he specifically referred to the structure of the crystals, which often consists of various thin layers. Other well-known mineralogists also decided to research polybasite in more detail and the well-known mineralogist August Breithaupt (1791 - 1873) also went into more detail about the chemical composition and introduced it in his writings under another name. Overall, a distinction is made between three different structures and an important influencing factor is the nature of the elements and it can also be counted to the mineral class of sulfates and sulfo salts. The mineral is particularly interesting due to the high content of silver, which is usually over 65% high, which is why it is often used as ore for the extraction of silver and in addition, it also often contains other important elements such as iron, selenium or zinc. It is usually caused by the influence of low temperatures and can be found in silver-containing mines and often occurs together with other silver-containing minerals and the most important documented locations include Mexico, Germany, Slovakia, USA and Canada.

Thanks a lot for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about minerals! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!