the.com/sphalerite
the rock so confusing miners named it after the Greek word for treacherous
means A common zinc sulfide mineral (ZnS) that is the chief ore of zinc, often glassy and resinous in luster and ranging from honey-yellow to brown to nearly black.
from From the Greek 'sphaleros,' meaning 'treacherous' or 'deceptive,' a name coined in the early 19th century by German mineralogist Ernst Friedrich Glocker. The label fit because the mineral is a notorious shapeshifter — its color and luster vary so wildly that early miners and assayers kept mistaking it for galena, the lead ore, and so dubbed it the 'deceiver.' For the same reason it earned the German miners' nickname 'Blende,' from 'blenden,' to blind or dazzle, surviving today in the alternate name 'zinc blende.'
- name origin
- Greek sphaleros, meaning deceptive or slippery
- zinc king
- world's primary ore of zinc, hands down
- hidden glow
- some specimens fluoresce orange under ultraviolet light
- gem trap
- cut gems sparkle harder than diamond but shatter easily
- smell test
- struck or scratched, it reeks faintly of rotten eggs
peru's mina condestable — world's largest primary zinc sphalerite deposit in cerro de pasco, peru
tennessee's knox county mines — historic sphalerite-rich zinc ore deposits mined for over 150 years in appalachia