261 - Bismuth

ID	261
Mineral	Bismuth
Location	Unknown - Unknown - Unknown - Unknown
Fluorescence	LW-UV: close SW-UV: close
Mindat.org	View Bismuth information at mindat.org

ID	684
Long ID	1:1:684:2
Formula	`Bi`
IMA Status	0 1
Other Occurrences	In hydrothermal veins with ores of Co, Ni, Ag, and Sn; in pegmatites and topaz-bearing Sn–W quartz veins.
Discovery Year	1546
Diapheny	Opaque
Cleavage	Perfect {0001}, Good {10_11}, poor {10_14}
Tenacity	sectile
Colour	Reddish-white to creamy-white; tarnishes iridescent pinkish, yellowish or bluish
Hardness (min)	2.0
Hardness (max)	2.5
Lustre	Metallic
About the name	As a chemical element Bismuth was officially discovered in 1753 by French scientist Claude Geoffroy. The origin of the name comes from the German words Weisse Masse meaning white mass. However, around 1400 the element name is already present in some scientific treaties. In fact before Geoffroy, also the Swiss scientist Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493 - 1541) probably better known under his Latinized name of Paracelsus, mentioned the word “Bisemutum”. He said that the Latin word came from a German term “Wissmut”. For him, the word “wissmut” was because in Saxony, around St. Georges, the mineral was extracted (gemutet), in the fields (in den Wiesen). For others, the word comes from another similar german word: Weissmuth = white material, and this is supported by the fact that bismuth is a bright metal of white colour.
Streak	Silver-white
Crystal System	Trigonal
Cleavage Type	Perfect
Morphology	Crystals, to 12 cm, but indistinct, commonly in parallel groupings, or hoppered; reticulated, arborescent, foliated, granular.
Twinning	Polysynthetic
Thermal Behaviour	Fuses at 265 C. Crystallizes readily from fusion.
key_elements	0
shortcode_ima	Bi
Group	Arsenic Group

Bismuth

Mindat data

Details