Descloizite

It's advisable to handle descloizite carefully to avoid generating dust and wash hands thoroughly afterward. When cutting or polishing descloizite, wear a dust mask to prevent inhaling heavy metal particles. Store descloizite in a sealed container in a well-ventilated area, away from children and pets. For those involved in crystal healing, never put it in your mouth.

A variety known as cuprodescloizite is dull green in color; it contains a considerable amount of copper replacing zinc and some arsenic replacing vanadium. There is also an arsenate analogue called arsendescloizite.

It was discovered in the Sierra de Córdoba deposit in Córdoba, Argentina in 1854 and named in honor of the French mineralogist Alfred Des Cloizeaux (1817–1897). It occurs as small prismatic or pyramidal crystals, usually forming drusy crusts and stalactitic aggregates; also as fibrous encrusting masses with a mammillary surface. Descloizite occurs in oxidised portions of veins of lead ores in association with pyromorphite, vanadinite, wulfenite, mottramite, mimetite and cerussite. The Otavi ("O-tarvi") Mountainland of northern Namibia was once considered home to the greatest vanadium deposits in the world, including those at Berg Aukas ("OW-cuss"), Abenab ("UB-en-ub"), Baltika ("BUL-tika") and Uitsab ("ATE-sub"). Descloizite and mottramite were the main ore minerals in each of these deposits, which are now exhausted. Other localities are the Sierra de Cordoba in Argentina; Lake Valley in Sierra County, New Mexico; Arizona; Phoenixville in Pennsylvania and Obir, Carinthia Austria.

Descloizite is largely composed of lead and zinc, but it is such a rare mineral that it is not a very valuable ore for either element. It is primarily valued as a collectors item, though its close association with other lead-bearing minerals make it a good indicator of lead nearby.

The Otavi ("O-tarvi") Mountainland of northern Namibia was once considered home to the greatest vanadium deposits in the world, including those at Berg Aukas ("OW-cuss"), Abenab ("UB-en-ub"), Baltika ("BUL-tika") and Uitsab ("ATE-sub"). Descloizite and mottramite were the main ore minerals in each of these deposits, which are now exhausted. Other localities are the Sierra de Cordoba in Argentina; Lake Valley in Sierra County, New Mexico; Arizona; Phoenixville in Pennsylvania and Obir, Carinthia Austria.

Descloizite occurs in oxidised portions of veins of lead ores in association with pyromorphite, vanadinite, wulfenite, mottramite, mimetite and cerussite.

It was discovered in the Sierra de Córdoba deposit in Córdoba, Argentina in 1854 and named in honor of the French mineralogist Alfred Des Cloizeaux (1817–1897).