SPHALERITE

CLARITY (MENTAL) | COURAGE | GROUNDING | HEALTH (PHYSICAL) | MANIFESTATION | STRENGTH (INNER)

Sphalerite is Zinc Sulphide, and the world’s main ore of Zinc. The name comes from the Greek for treacherous, because it so often looks like other minerals, Galena especially, and miners were regularly fooled. The colour depends on how much Iron is in the crystal. Pure Sphalerite is pale yellow or nearly colourless, and as the Iron increases it darkens through honey and amber to red-brown and black.

It forms in hydrothermal veins and Limestone deposits, where hot, metal-bearing fluids lay down Zinc and Sulphur as they cool. It usually turns up with Galena, Pyrite, Fluorite, Calcite and Barite. The crystals are tetrahedral or dodecahedral, sometimes twinned, with bright, sharp faces. Sphalerite measures between 3.5 to four on the Mohs scale.

Fine crystals come from Spain, Mexico, Peru, Bulgaria, Russia and the United States.