Aurichalcite

Aurichalcite

General
Category	Carbonate mineral
Chemical formula	(Zn,Cu)₅(CO₃)₂(OH)₆
Identification
Color	pale green, greenish blue, sky blue
Crystal habit	Acicular to druzy encrustations
Monoclinic-prismatic
Cleavage	[010] Perfect
Fracture	Uneven
Mohs Scale hardness	2
Luster	Pearly
Refractive index	nα = 1.655 nβ = 1.740 nγ = 1.744
Optical Properties	Biaxial (-)
Birefringence	0.0890
Pleochroism	Weak colorless to pale green
Streak	Light blue
Specific gravity	3.64 - 3.9

Aurichalcite is a zinc deposits. Its chemical formula is (Zn,Cu)₅(CO₃)₂(OH)₆. The zinc to copper ratio is about 5:2.

Associated minerals include: azurite.

It was first described in 1839 by Bottger who named the mineral for its zinc and copper content after the Greek όρειχαλκος, for "mountain brass" or "mountain copper", the name of a fabulous metal.

References

Handbook of Mineralogy
Mindat
Webmineral data

Categories: Carbonate minerals

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Aurichalcite". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.