Galena

Last updated
Galena
Galena - Huallanca, Bologesi, Ancash, Peru.jpg
Galena with minor pyrite
General
Category Sulfide mineral
Formula
(repeating unit)		PbS
IMA symbol Gn [1]
Strunz classification 2.CD.10
Dana classification 2.8.1.1
Crystal system Cubic
Crystal class Hexoctahedral (m3m)
H–M symbol: (⁠4/m⁠3⁠2/m⁠)
Space group Fm3m
Unit cell a = 5.936 Å; Z = 4
Identification
ColorLead gray and silvery
Crystal habit Cubes and octahedra, blocky, tabular and sometimes skeletal crystals
Twinning Contact, penetration and lamellar
Cleavage Cubic perfect on {001}, parting on {111}
Fracture Subconchoidal
Tenacity Brittle
Mohs scale hardness2.5–2.75
Luster Metallic on cleavage planes
Streak Lead gray
Diaphaneity Opaque
Specific gravity 7.2–7.6
Optical propertiesIsotropic and opaque
Fusibility 2
Other characteristicsNatural semiconductor
References [2] [3] [4]

Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. [5]

Contents

Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system often showing octahedral forms. It is often associated with the minerals sphalerite, calcite and fluorite.

Occurrence

Galena with baryte and pyrite from Cerro de Pasco, Peru; 5.8 cm x 4.8 cm x 4.4 cm (2.3 in x 1.9 in x 1.7 in) Baryte-Galena-Pyrite-203072.jpg
Galena with baryte and pyrite from Cerro de Pasco, Peru; 5.8 cm × 4.8 cm × 4.4 cm (2.3 in × 1.9 in × 1.7 in)

Galena is the main ore of lead, used since ancient times, [6] since lead can be smelted from galena in an ordinary wood fire. [7] Galena typically is found in hydrothermal veins in association with sphalerite, marcasite, chalcopyrite, cerussite, anglesite, dolomite, calcite, quartz, barite, and fluorite. It is also found in association with sphalerite in low-temperature lead-zinc deposits within limestone beds. Minor amounts are found in contact metamorphic zones, in pegmatites, and disseminated in sedimentary rock. [8]

In some deposits, the galena contains up to 0.5% silver, a byproduct that far surpasses the main lead ore in revenue. [9] In these deposits significant amounts of silver occur as included silver sulfide mineral phases or as limited silver in solid solution within the galena structure. These argentiferous galenas have long been an important ore of silver. [6] [10] Silver-bearing galena is almost entirely of hydrothermal origin; galena in lead-zinc deposits contains little silver. [8]

Galena deposits are found worldwide in various environments. [4] Noted deposits include those at Freiberg in Saxony; [2] Cornwall, the Mendips in Somerset, Derbyshire, and Cumberland in England; the Linares mines in Spain were worked from before the Roman times until the end of the 20th century; [11] the Madan and Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria; the Sullivan Mine of British Columbia; Broken Hill and Mount Isa in Australia; and the ancient mines of Sardinia.

In the United States, it occurs most notably as lead-zinc ore in the Mississippi Valley type deposits of the Lead Belt in southeastern Missouri, which is the largest known deposit, [2] and in the Driftless Area of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, providing the origin of the name of Galena, Illinois, a historical settlement known for the material. Galena also was a major mineral of the zinc-lead mines of the tri-state district around Joplin in southwestern Missouri and the adjoining areas of Kansas and Oklahoma. [2] Galena is also an important ore mineral in the silver mining regions of Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Montana. Of the latter, the Coeur d'Alene district of northern Idaho was most prominent. [2]

Australia is the world's leading producer of lead as of 2021, most of which is extracted as galena. Argentiferous galena was accidentally discovered at Glen Osmond in 1841, and additional deposits were discovered near Broken Hill in 1876 and at Mount Isa in 1923. [12] Most galena in Australia is found in hydrothermal deposits emplaced around 1680 million years ago, which have since been heavily metamorphosed. [13]

The largest documented crystal of galena is composite cubo-octahedra from the Great Laxey Mine, Isle of Man, measuring 25 cm × 25 cm × 25 cm (10 in × 10 in × 10 in). [14]

Importance

Galena is the official state mineral of the U.S. states of Kansas, [15] Missouri, [16] and Wisconsin; [17] the former mining communities of Galena, Kansas, [18] [19] Galena, Illinois, [20] Galena, South Dakota and Galena, Alaska, [21] take their names from deposits of this mineral.

Structure

Galena belongs to the octahedral sulfide group of minerals that have metal ions in octahedral positions, such as the iron sulfide pyrrhotite and the nickel arsenide niccolite. The galena group is named after its most common member, with other isometric members that include manganese bearing alabandite and niningerite. [8] [4]

Divalent lead (Pb) cations and sulfur (S) anions form a close-packed cubic unit cell much like the mineral halite of the halide mineral group. Zinc, cadmium, iron, copper, antimony, arsenic, bismuth and selenium also occur in variable amounts in galena. Selenium substitutes for sulfur in the structure constituting a solid solution series. The lead telluride mineral altaite has the same crystal structure as galena. [8]

Geochemistry

Within the weathering or oxidation zone galena alters to anglesite (lead sulfate) or cerussite (lead carbonate). [8] Galena exposed to acid mine drainage can be oxidized to anglesite by naturally occurring bacteria and archaea, in a process similar to bioleaching. [22]

Uses

Galena "cat's whisker" detector CatWhisker.jpg
Galena "cat's whisker" detector

One of the oldest uses of galena was to produce kohl, an eye cosmetic now regarded as toxic due to the risk of lead poisoning. [23] In Ancient Egypt, this was applied around the eyes to reduce the glare of the desert sun and to repel flies, which were a potential source of disease. [24]

In pre-Columbian North America, galena was used by indigenous peoples as an ingredient in decorative paints and cosmetics, and widely traded throughout the eastern United States. [25] Traces of galena are frequently found at the Mississippian city at Kincaid Mounds in present-day Illinois. [26] The galena used at the site originated from deposits in southeastern and central Missouri and the Upper Mississippi Valley. [25]

Galena is the primary ore of lead, and is often mined for its silver content. [6] It is used as a source of lead in ceramic glaze. [27]

Galena is a semiconductor with a small band gap of about 0.4  eV, which found use in early wireless communication systems. It was used as the crystal in crystal radio receivers, in which it was used as a point-contact diode capable of rectifying alternating current to detect the radio signals. The galena crystal was used with a sharp wire, known as a "cat's whisker", in contact with it. [28]

In modern times, galena is primarily used to extract its constituent minerals. In addition to silver, it is the most important source of lead, for uses such as in lead-acid batteries. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sphalerite</span> Zinc-iron sulfide mineral

Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula (Zn, Fe)S. It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Valley type, and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. It is found in association with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, calcite, dolomite, quartz, rhodochrosite, and fluorite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wulfenite</span> Molybdate mineral

Wulfenite is a lead molybdate mineral with the formula PbMoO4. It often occurs as thin tabular crystals with a bright orange-red to yellow-orange color, sometimes brown, although the color can be highly variable. In its yellow form it is sometimes called "yellow lead ore".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglesite</span> Lead sulfate mineral

Anglesite is a lead sulfate mineral with the chemical formula PbSO4. It occurs as an oxidation product of primary lead sulfide ore, galena. Anglesite occurs as prismatic orthorhombic crystals and earthy masses, and is isomorphous with barite and celestine. It contains 74% of lead by mass and therefore has a high specific gravity of 6.3. Anglesite's color is white or gray with pale yellow streaks. It may be dark gray if impure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bournonite</span> Sulfosalt mineral species

Bournonite, also axotomous antimony glance, wheel ore, berthonite, volchite or dystomic glance (German: antimonbleikupferblende) is a sulfosalt mineral species, trithioantimoniate of lead and copper with the formula PbCuSbS3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeast Missouri Lead District</span> Lead mining area in Missouri, US

The Southeast Missouri Lead District, commonly called the Lead Belt, is a lead mining district in the southeastern part of Missouri. Counties in the Lead Belt include Saint Francois, Crawford, Dent, Iron, Madison, Reynolds, and Washington. This mining district is the most important and critical lead producer in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sedimentary exhalative deposits</span> Zinc-lead deposits

Sedimentary exhalative deposits are zinc-lead deposits originally interpreted to have been formed by discharge of metal-bearing basinal fluids onto the seafloor resulting in the precipitation of mainly stratiform ore, often with thin laminations of sulfide minerals. SEDEX deposits are hosted largely by clastic rocks deposited in intracontinental rifts or failed rift basins and passive continental margins. Since these ore deposits frequently form massive sulfide lenses, they are also named sediment-hosted massive sulfide (SHMS) deposits, as opposed to volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposits. The sedimentary appearance of the thin laminations led to early interpretations that the deposits formed exclusively or mainly by exhalative processes onto the seafloor, hence the term SEDEX. However, recent study of numerous deposits indicates that shallow subsurface replacement is also an important process, in several deposits the predominant one, with only local if any exhalations onto the seafloor. For this reason, some authors prefer the term clastic-dominated zinc-lead deposits. As used today, therefore, the term SEDEX is not to be taken to mean that hydrothermal fluids actually vented into the overlying water column, although this may have occurred in some cases.

In ore deposit geology, supergene processes or enrichment are those that occur relatively near the surface as opposed to deep hypogene processes. Supergene processes include the predominance of meteoric water circulation (i.e. water derived from precipitation) with concomitant oxidation and chemical weathering. The descending meteoric waters oxidize the primary (hypogene) sulfide ore minerals and redistribute the metallic ore elements. Supergene enrichment occurs at the base of the oxidized portion of an ore deposit. Metals that have been leached from the oxidized ore are carried downward by percolating groundwater, and react with hypogene sulfides at the supergene-hypogene boundary. The reaction produces secondary sulfides with metal contents higher than those of the primary ore. This is particularly noted in copper ore deposits where the copper sulfide minerals chalcocite (Cu2S), covellite (CuS), digenite (Cu18S10), and djurleite (Cu31S16) are deposited by the descending surface waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ore deposits</span>

Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ore deposits are important and highly valuable concentrations of lead and zinc sulfide ores hosted within carbonate formations and which share a common genetic origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broken Hill ore deposit</span>

The Broken Hill Ore Deposit is located underneath Broken Hill in western New South Wales, Australia, and is the namesake for the town. It is arguably the world's richest and largest zinc-lead ore deposit.

The Admiralty mining district is a mining area in the U.S. state of Alaska which consists of Admiralty Island. Silver and base metals are mined, with gold recovered as a by-product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boleite</span>

Boleite is a complex halide mineral with formula: KPb26Ag9Cu24(OH)48Cl62. It was first described in 1891 as an oxychloride mineral. It is an isometric mineral which forms in deep-blue cubes. There are numerous minerals related to boleite, such as pseudoboleite, cumengite, and diaboleite, and these all have the same complex crystal structure. They all contain bright-blue cubic forms and are formed in altered zones of lead and copper deposits, produced during the reaction of chloride bearing solutions with primary sulfide minerals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mendipite</span> Oxyhalide of lead. Rare mineral found in the Mendip Hills

Mendipite is a rare mineral that was named in 1939 for the locality where it is found, the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It is an oxyhalide of lead with formula Pb3Cl2O2.

The Tabataud Quarry is situated in the northwestern French Massif Central. The quarry used to be mined for its granodiorite.

The le Puy Mine is an ancient lead mine in the northwestern Massif Central, France. The mine produced mainly silver-bearing galena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lead smelting</span> Process of refining lead metal

Plants for the production of lead are generally referred to as lead smelters. Primary lead production begins with sintering. Concentrated lead ore is fed into a sintering machine with iron, silica, limestone fluxes, coke, soda ash, pyrite, zinc, caustics or pollution control particulates. Smelting uses suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. Reduction is the final, high-temperature step in smelting. It is here that the oxide becomes the elemental metal. A reducing environment pulls the final oxygen atoms from the raw metal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hidalgoite</span> Mineral of the beudantite group

Hidalgoite, PbAl3(AsO4)(SO4)(OH)4, is a rare member of the beudantite group and is usually classified as part of the alunite family. It was named after the place where it was first discovered, the Zimapán mining district, Hidalgo, Mexico. At Hidalgo where it was initially discovered, it was found as dense white masses in alternating dikes of quartz latite and quartz monzonite alongside other secondary minerals such as sphalerite, arsenopyrite, cerussite and trace amounts of angelsite and alamosite, it was then rediscovered at other locations such as Australia where it occurs on oxidized shear zones above greywacke shales especially on the anticline prospects of the area, and on fine grained quartz-spessartine rocks in Broken Hill, Australia. Hidalgoite specimens are usually associated with copper minerals, clay minerals, iron oxides and polymetallic sulfides in occurrence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segnitite</span> Common iron oxide mineral

Segnitite is a lead iron(III) arsenate mineral. Segnitite was first found in the Broken Hill ore deposit in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. In 1991, segnitite was approved as a new mineral. Segnitite has since been found worldwide near similar locality types where rocks are rich in zinc and lead especially. it was named for Australian mineralogist, gemologist and petrologist Edgar Ralph Segnit. The mineral was named after E. R. Segnit due to his contributions to Australian mineralogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queitite</span>

Queitite is a lead zinc silicate sulphate that was named after the mineral dealer Clive S. Queit, who collected the first specimens. It got approved by the IMA in 1979, and it is an extremely rare secondary mineral.

Polymetallic ores or multimetal ores are complex ores containing a number of chemical elements, among which the most important are lead and zinc. In addition, polymetallic ores can contain copper, gold, silver, cadmium, sometimes bismuth, tin, indium and gallium. The main minerals that form polymetallic ores are galena, sphalerite, to a lesser extent pyrite, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, cassiterite. They are most commonly formed from sulfides but also include oxides.

Chvilevaite (Russian: чвилеваи́т, чвилёваи́т, in its own name) is a rare hydrothermal polymetallic mineral from the class of complex sulfides, forming microscopic grains in related minerals, its composition is a rare combination of alkali (combining lithophile) and chalcophile metals — sodium ferro-sulfide, zinc and copper with the calculation formula Na(Cu,Fe,Zn)2S4, originally published and confirmed as Na(Cu,Fe,Zn)2S2.

References

  1. ↑ Warr, L.N. (2021). "IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols". Mineralogical Magazine. 85 (3): 291–320. Bibcode:2021MinM...85..291W. doi: 10.1180/mgm.2021.43 . S2CID   235729616.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Anthony, John W.; Bideaux, Richard A.; Bladh, Kenneth W.; Nichols, Monte C., eds. (1990). "Galena". Handbook of Mineralogy (PDF). Vol. 1. Chantilly, VA: Mineralogical Society of America. ISBN   0962209708.
  3. ↑ "Galena". Webmineral.
  4. 1 2 3 Galena. Mindat.org
  5. ↑ Young, Courtney A.; Taylor, Patrick R.; Anderson, Corby G. (2008). Hydrometallurgy 2008: Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium. SME. ISBN   9780873352666.
  6. 1 2 3 Lucas, A. (May 1928). "Silver in Ancient Times". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 14 (1): 313–319. doi:10.1177/030751332801400160. S2CID   192277012.
  7. ↑ Winder, C. (1993b). "The history of lead – Part 3". LEAD Action News. 2 (3). ISSN   1324-6011. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Klein, Cornelis; Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. (1993). Manual of mineralogy (after James D. Dana) (21st ed.). New York: Wiley. pp. 354–356. ISBN   047157452X.
  9. 1 2 Hobart M. King. "Galena Mineral | Uses and Properties". geology.com. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  10. ↑ Wood, J. R.; Hsu, Y-T.; Bell, C. (2021). "Sending Laurion Back to the Future: Bronze Age Silver and the Source of Confusion". Internet Archaeology. 56 (9). doi: 10.11141/ia.56.9 . S2CID   236973111.
  11. ↑ Calvo, Miguel (2003). Minerales y Minas de España. Vol. II. Sulfuros y sulfosales[Minerals and mines of Spain] (in Spanish). Spain: Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Alava. pp. 293–301. ISBN   84-7821-543-3.
  12. ↑ "Lead". Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. 4 March 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  13. ↑ Walters, Stephen; Bailey, Andrew (1998-12-01). "Geology and mineralization of the Cannington Ag-Pb-Zn deposit; an example of Broken Hill-type mineralization in the eastern succession, Mount Isa Inlier, Australia". Economic Geology. 93 (8): 1307–1329. Bibcode:1998EcGeo..93.1307W. doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.93.8.1307.
  14. ↑ Rickwood, P. C. (1981). "The largest crystals" (PDF). American Mineralogist. 66: 885–907.
  15. ↑ "2018 Statute Chapter 73 Article 38", Official state mineral, Kansas Legislature, retrieved 2019-12-05
  16. ↑ "Office of the Secretary of State, Missouri – State Symbols". State of Missouri. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  17. ↑ "Wisconsin State Symbols". State of Wisconsin. Archived from the original on 2010-01-12. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  18. ↑ Rydjord, John (1972) Kansas Place-Names, University of Oklahoma Press. p. 77 ISBN   0-8061-0994-7
  19. ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. p. 133.
  20. ↑ Galena Historical Society (June 21, 2006). "History Highlights" . Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  21. ↑ state.ak.us
  22. ↑ Da Silva, Gabriel (2004). "Kinetics and mechanism of the bacterial and ferric sulphate oxidation of galena". Hydrometallurgy. 75 (1–4): 99–110. Bibcode:2004HydMe..75...99D. doi:10.1016/j.hydromet.2004.07.001.
  23. ↑ "Toxic trends". Wellcome Collection. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  24. ↑ Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005). The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt. New York. p. 10. ISBN   1-58839-170-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  25. 1 2 "Lead pollution from Native Americans attributed to crushing galena for glitter paint, adornments". Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  26. ↑ The Glittery Legacy of Lead at a Historic Native American Site, Atlas Obscura, November 7, 2019
  27. ↑ Glaze. thepotteries.org
  28. ↑ Lee, Thomas H. (2007). "The (Pre-)History of the Integrated Circuit: A Random Walk" (PDF). IEEE Solid-State Circuits Newsletter. 12 (2): 16–22. doi:10.1109/N-SSC.2007.4785573. ISSN   1098-4232. S2CID   17583856.[ permanent dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.