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Download hereGENERAL DESCRIPTION
Pyromorphite is a lead chlorophosphate which, like anglesite and cerusite, is a mineral present in the oxidation zones of the lead-containing deposits. It can be mined like lead ore, if it is sufficiently abundant.
It generally crystallizes out of hexagonal prisms. Of yellow colour shining, green olive or brown, it is a mineral that is sought by the museums. It gives a yellow fluorescence to orange under UV (short and long waves).
There are many pyromorphite deposits among which one can quote : Ems in Germany, which produced masses of several kilos with crystals up to 5 cm, the Hill Bunker mines in the USA, which has produced great clusters of cristals, the Touissit mine in Morocco. Recently, new occurrences appeared in China, noticed by their quality, colour and brightness.
In France, the samples coming from the mines of Les Farges (Corrèze) were diffused in the entire world as the deposit is known for the quality of its exceptional samples. Also, the mine of Vézis still has a pyromorphite column of approximately 160 m thickness having already but partly produced remarkable crystalllizations.
It is also present in many other localities: in the deposit of Pontgibaud (Puy de Dôme), in Poullaouen (Finistere), in Peyrebrune (Tarn), the Vosges (Steinbach, Urbeis, Ste Marie-aux-Mines, Rimbach-près-Masevaux, Giromagny), Auvergne (Lively, Lavoûte-Chilhac, Paulhaguet, Pontgibaud etc), Brittany (Carnoët, Plélauff, Huelgoat, Poullaouen, Baud etc), Indre (Chaillac), Tarn (St. Salvy de la Balme, Peyrebrune), Normandy (Rouez), Aveyron (Kaymar), Var (Cap Garonne, Fontsante), the Rhône (Lantignié) among so much of others.
The type is not definable because it acts of a described old species before the conditions of deposit of the types were not defined.
HISTORY : Name inspired from the Greek word [pyros] meaning "fire" and "αργuρoσ" [morphos] meaning "shape", in reference to the globule shape formed during the melting and which cooldowns with a crystalline form
Species described in 1813 by Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann (1782-1859), German mineralogist
Type-locality : undefined because species already known from the Ancients
ANCIENT NAME : Mine de plomb verte ou jaunastre, plomb phosphaté
CHEMICAL FORMULA : Pb5 (PO4)3 Cl
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Hexagonal
COLOR : Green dark, green yellow, yellow-brown
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to translucent
LUSTER : Resineous to adamantine
STREAK : White
MORPHOLOGIE : Short prismatic crystals
HARDNESS : 3,5-4,0
CHEMICAL CLASS: 6,7-7,0
DENSITY : VII - Phosphates, arsenates and vanadates
GROUP : Chlorapatite - pyromorphite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 7/B.39-150
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 8.BN.10
