Owyheeite
Owyheeite is an unusual, black to grey lead-silver sulfosalt, named for Owyhee County
in Idaho (USA), where the type locality Poorman Mine is located in the Silver City
District. Owyheeite is only known from a few localities, and invariably as a very minor
component in the deposit, and thus does not have a value as an ore mineral by
itself.
My records indicate that Owyheeite from a range of deposits occurs on specimens
that also carry one or more of the following minerals: Calcite, Dolomite, Galena,
Quartz, and Pyrite.
Specimen Handling
Owyheeite is for all practical purposes stable in a normal household environment. It is
not harmed by light, changes in temperature in the normal comfort range, or known to
decompose. Owyheeite specimens can be brittle and should be handled with care like any
other mineral specimen. Owyheeite is not appreciably soluble in water, but aggregates of
needle-like crystals may collapse under the weight of water.
Bibliography
Anthony, John Williams, Richard A. Bideaux, Kenneth W. Bladh & Monte
C. Nichols. 1990. Handbook of mineralogy, vol. 1
Blackburn, William H. & William H. Dennen. 1997. Encyclopedia of mineral
names. Canadian Mineralogist, special publication 1.
Gaines, Richard W., H. Catherine W. Skinner, Eugene E. Foord, Brian Mason,
Abraham Rosenzweig & Vandall T. King. 1997. Dana's new mineralogy:
the system of mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, 8th
ed.
Hintze, Carl (ed.) 1936-1937. Handbuch der Mineralogie,
Ergänzungsband
Palache, Charles, Harry Berman & Clifford Frondel. 1944. The system of
mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, Yale University
1837-1892, 7th ed. Vol. 1.
Ramdohr, Paul. 1980. The ore minerals and their intergrowths, 2nd ed., vols. 1-
2
Ramdohr, Paul & Hugo Strunz. 1980. Klockmann's Lehrbuch der
Mineralogie, 16th ed.
Roberts, Willard Lincoln, Thomas J. Campbell & George Robert Rapp jr.
1990. Encyclopedia of Minerals 2nd ed.
Robinson, S.C. 1949. Owyheeite. American Mineralogist, 34(5-6), 398-402
Shannon, E.V. 1921. Owyheeite. American Mineralogist, 6 (2), 82-83
This page is written and maintaned by Claus Hedegaard
