Pyrargyrite Mineral

Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day that was full of positive experiences! In this post, I would like to bring a new mineral a little closer and hope you can expand your knowledge.

You can see here an interesting mineral that is also known as pyrargyrite and it is a very popular mineral for the extraction of silver which can usually have a content of over 60% and the name can be traced back to the Greek and is derived from the words Greek pyr for fire and argyros for silver. In addition to silver, it also contains amounts of sulfur as well as antimony and as ore it is only used when it is abundant in places and in addition to this use it is also very popular in the circles of collectors but here, you should pay attention to the correct storage here because it can happen due to too much contact with the air that it changes the appearance and it is also important to know that it also often contains arsenic and can therefore be toxic and you should be careful with it and keep it locked in rooms in which you are not too often. It happens that it changes color due to the influence of light and, depending on the duration or intensity of the exposure, there are changes in appearance and this property is also known as photochromism. It is assumed that it has already been used as ore in ancient cultures and already in the 16th century, it was often mentioned as silver ore and it received its current name in the 19th century by the German chemist Ernst Friedrich Glocker (1793 - 1858), who was a well-known member of numerous associations and was considered the publisher of some important writings. The color can vary greatly and usually it has a dark color as well as a metallic shine and there are also some specimens with red colorings and due to the addition with other minerals it can take on other shades and the crystal structure is trigonal and it also sometimes tends to form twins. Nowadays, there are over 1000 different locations and the most popular locations that are responsible for mining include Spain, Africa, North or South America as well as some parts of Europe.

Thanks a lot for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about minerals! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.