Nsutite is a manganese oxide

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...

with formula: ( Mn⁴⁺_1−xMn²⁺_x O_2-2x(O H)_2x where x = 0.06-0.07).http://www.webmineral.com/data/Nsutite.shtml Webmineral data It is found in most large

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy u ...

deposits and was first discovered in

Nsuta Nsuta is a small town and is the capital of Sekyere Central, a district in the Ashanti Region of Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atl ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

. Since then, it has been found worldwide. Nsutite is a dull mineral with a

hardness In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion (mechanical), abrasion. In general, different materials differ in their hardn ...

of 6.5-8.5 and an average

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water (molecule), wa ...

of 4.45. Nustite is used as a

cathode A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic ''CCD'' for ''Cathode Current Departs''. A conventional current describes the direction i ...

in zinc–carbon batteries, but synthetic manganese oxide is gradually replacing it.

References

Oxide minerals Manganese(II,IV) minerals Hexagonal minerals {{oxide-mineral-stub