Pyromorphite - Pb₅(PO₄)₃Cl

Habit: Dark grass green, green, yellow, yellow orange, reddish orange, yellow brown, brown, tan or grayish; may be colorless. Crystals prismatic, generally simple; also equant, barrel shaped, rarely tabular or pyramidal, globular or granular. Resinous to subadamantine luster; transparent to translucent. White streak

Environment: Occurs as a secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of lead deposits, and rarely as a volcanic sublimate.

Etymology: From the Greek pyros, meaning "fire," and morphos, meaning "form," because when a sample is melted into a globule, a crystalline shape forms on cooling.

Pyromorphite is a lead phosphate, found around the oxidized edges of lead deposits. It is occasionally used as an ore of lead. One of the classic localities for pyromorphite is the Broken Hill Mine in New South Wales, Australia. Broken Hill’s massive ore body, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, is among the world’s largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits.