Wulfenite
Mineral PbMoO4
Take care.
- Contains lead: Wash your hands after handling it, keep it away from children, and don't make dust.
- Fragile: Handle it gently and pack it well; it breaks or crumbles easily.
About it
Thin square plates of lead molybdate in honey, orange, and red, heavy for their size and easily chipped. Famous from the Red Cloud mine in Arizona, Los Lamentos in Mexico, and Mežica in Slovenia.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Molybdate, scheelite group
- Formula
- PbMoO4
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2.5–3
- Specific gravity
- 6.5–7
- Streak
- white
- Lustre
- adamantine (diamond-like), resinous
- Crystal system
- Tetragonal
- Colours
- yellow, orange, red, brown, grey, colourless
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- distinct pyramidal; subconchoidal fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.