Orpiment
Mineral As2S3
Also called King's yellow and Auripigment
Take care.
- Contains arsenic: Wash your hands after handling it, don't make dust, and never heat it.
About it
Golden to orange-yellow, with a pearly cleavage that peels into flexible sheets, often with realgar. Large crystals come from the Twin Creeks and Getchell mines in Nevada, and Shimen, China.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Sulfide
- Formula
- As2S3
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 1.5–2
- Specific gravity
- 3.49
- Streak
- pale yellow
- Lustre
- resinous, pearly
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Colours
- lemon yellow, golden yellow, orange-yellow
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- perfect in one direction, flexible thin sheets
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.