Galena
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Fact sheet

Galena

Galena (lead sulphide) is the principal ore of the heavy metal lead. This specimen shows intergrown cube-shaped crystals of dull grey galena and comes from East Wheal Rose.

In Cornwall galena occurs in veins with sphalerite (zinc sulphide) and other sulphide minerals. Five mines dominated lead production in Cornwall during the mid to late 19th century, but the most productive was East Wheal Rose near Newlyn East.

Cornish galena frequently contained a certain amount of silver. Typically the lead ores from East Wheal Rose yielded 67% lead metal and around 0.05% silver. The very high value of silver compared with that of lead, meant that its sale made a disproportionately large contribution to the overall profitability of the mine.

Chemical Formula: PbS

Additional images
  • Label on galena and quartz cluster
  • Galena and quartz cluster 5 cm across
  • Galena and quartz cluster 5 cm across
  • Galena and quartz cluster 7.5 cm across
Map
50.362, -5.041
Description:
East Wheal Rose SW 837 554
Precision:
Good
About this collection

Sample details

Type
mineral
Category
hydrothermal mineral deposit
Rock-forming mineral
galena
Category guide  
Category Guide
Title
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Description
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Accessory minerals
Minerals that occur in very low abundance in a rock. They are usually not visible with the naked eye and contribute perhapssver, they often dominate the rare elements such as platinum group metals.
Rock-forming minerals
Minerals that make up the bulk of all rock samples and are also the ones used in rock classi?cation.
Timescale
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Theme
A term used to group together related samples that are not already gathered into a single Collection. For instance, there is a ‘SW England granites’ theme that includes such rock types as granite, hydrothermal breccia, skarn and vein samples.
Category
A general term used to label a rock sample. It is a useful way of grouping similar samples throughout a collection. Category names are often, but not exclusively, common rock names (e.g. granite, basalt, dolerite, gabbro, greisen, skarn, gneiss, amphibolite, limestone, sandstone).
Owner
The owner of the sample that appears in the collection. For example, NASA owns all the samples that appear in the Moon Rocks collection
We would like to thank the following for the use of this sample: