Aikinite
Mineral PbCuBiS3
Also called Needle ore
Take care.
- Contains lead: Wash your hands after handling it, keep it away from children, and don't make dust.
About it
Lead-grey needles of lead-copper-bismuth sulfide that often tarnish yellowish; classic as needles in quartz from Berezovsk in Russia's Urals. Named for Arthur Aikin.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Sulfosalt
- Formula
- PbCuBiS3
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2–2.5
- Specific gravity
- 6.8–7.2
- Streak
- greyish black
- Lustre
- metallic
- Crystal system
- Orthorhombic
- Colours
- lead grey, yellowish to coppery tarnish
- Transparency
- opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- indistinct; uneven fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.