Pharmacolite
Mineral Ca(HAsO4)·2H2O
Take care.
- Contains arsenic: Wash your hands after handling it, don't make dust, and never heat it.
About it
Silky white tufts and crusts that grow on arsenic ores, often in old mine workings. Its name comes from the Greek for poison; common at Jáchymov in the Czech Republic and in Saxony.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Arsenate
- Formula
- Ca(HAsO4)·2H2O
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2–2.5
- Specific gravity
- 2.53–2.73
- Streak
- white
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy), silky
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Colours
- white, colourless, greyish
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- perfect in one direction
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.