Zincobriartite

Description

Zincobriartite is the Zinc analogue of Briarite, which has a hardness 3½ – 4½ and a specific gravity of 4.337 and was named for Gaston Briart, a Belgian geologist who studied the Kipushi deposit.

Zincobriartite has no WebMineral page nor a Wikipedia page, and as it was only just approved as a valid mineral less than nine years ago, it seems there’s not very much widely known about this rare rock!

Wikipedia does, however, have an interesting little tidbit on its page for Germanium – “because it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was found comparatively late in the discovery of the elements. Germanium ranks 50th in abundance of the elements in the Earth’s crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties from its position on his periodic table, and called the element ekasilicon. On February 6, 1886, Clemens Winkler at Freiberg University found the new element, along with silver and sulfur, in the mineral argyrodite. Winkler named the element after Germany, his country of birth. Germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of zinc), though germanium is also recovered commercially from silver, lead, and copper ores.”

It’s only been found in only three locations worldwide so far, with two locations in Southern Africa and one in Argentina, but there’s probably more out there somewhere waiting to be discovered, so be sure to keep your eyes out for a valuable mineral like this!