Sphalerite, I Zinc it's Great!

  
      Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral that is also rich in the metal zinc. When a mineral is called a sulfide that means that one of the major components in its chemical makeup is sulfur. Sphalerite is made up of only two elements: sulfur and zinc. Sphalerite crystals are usually tetrahedral prisms (prisms that have four faces) but can also be octahedral (having eight faces) or dodecahedral (having twelve faces) and the faces of its prisms are usually rounded. Sphalerite can be golden brown, yellow, reddish brown, yellow-orange, red, brown, green, black, or rarely colorless or white in color. Sphalerite is also known by many nicknames. Some of my favorites are: zinc blende, honey zinc, black jack, and ruby jack. Sphalerite also displays what is called trboluminescence. When a mineral is triboluminescent it will give off flashes of orange light when it is scratched with a metal object. In addition to emitting orange flashes of light when scratched, sphalerite also smells like rotten eggs! Sphalerite’s name is derived from the Greek word sphaleros, which means “treacherous” or “deceitful.” It was given this name because it is often confused with the mineral galena, another sulfide mineral.
     Sphalerite’s main use today is as an ore of the metal zinc. Zinc is the fourth most widely used metal today, surpassed in use only by iron, copper, and aluminum. Zinc is used to protect steel from rusting by coating it in a process called galvanizing, and is alloyed with copper to make the metal brass. Zinc has also been used to make the core of the American penny since the early 1980s. Sphalerite has few other uses beside that of an ore stone, but it is sought by collectors and occasionally cut as a gemstone. Sphalerite is far to soft to be used as a wearable gemstone and is really only cut for gem collectors.
     One of the best locations that I know of where sphalerite can be found is certain deposits in Tennessee. Sphalerite is found in many places throughout the central United States including: Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Other American locales include Idaho, Alaska, New Jersey, Colorado, and Utah. Sphalerite is also found outside the United States in such places as: Bulgaria, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and China.
     Sphalerite is important both as a collectible mineral and as a source of a very useful metal.