Hutchinsonite
Mineral TlPbAs5S9
Take care.
- Toxic: Wash your hands after handling it, don't lick or taste it, and don't make dust.
- Contains lead: Wash your hands after handling it, keep it away from children, and don't make dust.
- Contains arsenic: Wash your hands after handling it, don't make dust, and never heat it.
About it
Tiny red to scarlet prisms of a thallium-lead arsenic sulfosalt, prized by micromounters. Best known from Lengenbach, Switzerland, and Quiruvilca, Peru.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Sulfosalt
- Formula
- TlPbAs5S9
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 1.5–2
- Specific gravity
- 4.5–4.7
- Streak
- cherry red
- Lustre
- adamantine (diamond-like), submetallic
- Crystal system
- Orthorhombic
- Colours
- cherry red, scarlet, deep red
- Transparency
- translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- good in one direction
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.