Lautenthalite is a mineral that was named after its location, Lautenthal, Harz mountains, Germany. It can be found in several slag localities. It was approved by the

IMA IMA or Ima may refer to: Education * Indian Military Academy, Dehradun * Instituto Miguel Ángel, a school in Mexico City Galleries and museums * Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, US * Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France * Islamic Mus ...

in 1993. It is a member of the devilline group, and it is the lead analogue of devilline and campigliaite. Without analytical methods, it is hard to distinguish the mineral from both. It shows

pleochroic Pleochroism is an optical phenomenon in which a substance has different colors when observed at different angles, especially with polarized light. Etymology The roots of the word are from Greek (). It was first made compound in the German term ...

properties, which is an optical phenomenon. Depending on which angle the mineral is inspected, the color of it differs. On the x optical axis, the mineral could be seen in a pale blue color; on the y and z axis, the mineral's color changes to blue. It has tabular crystals and sheaflike or irregular aggregates. Lautenthalite is associated with wroewolfeite, which it tends to overgrow. It is also associated with

anglesite Anglesite is a lead sulfate mineral with the chemical formula PbSO4. It occurs as an oxidation product of primary lead sulfide ore, galena. Anglesite occurs as prismatic orthorhombic crystals and earthy masses, and is isomorphous with barite and ...

, devilline– serpierite,

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

linarite Linarite is a somewhat rare, crystalline mineral that is known among mineral collectors for its unusually intense, pure blue color. It is formed by the oxidation of galena and chalcopyrite and other copper sulfides. It is a combined copper lead s ...

brochantite Brochantite is a sulfate mineral, one of a number of cupric sulfates. Its chemical formula is Cu4SO4(OH)6. Formed in arid climates or in rapidly oxidizing copper sulfide deposits, it was named by Armand Lévy (mineralogist), Armand Lévy for his ...

and schulenbergite. It forms small singular crystals with a size of up to 0.5 × 0.3 × 0.03 mm.

Chemical properties

Lautenthalite forms during the oxidation of copper, lead and zinc sulphides. It mostly consists of oxygen (33.60%), copper (31.40%) and lead (25.59%), but also contains sulfur (7.92%) and hydrogen (1.49%).

References

Lead minerals Monoclinic minerals Copper minerals Sulfate minerals {{Mineral-stub