Enargite

It's advisable to handle enargite carefully to avoid generating dust and wash hands thoroughly afterward. When cutting or polishing enargite, wear a dust mask to prevent inhaling heavy metal particles. Store enargite 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.

Enargite is a steel gray, blackish gray, to violet black mineral with metallic luster. It forms slender orthorhombic prisms as well as massive aggregates. It has a hardness of 3 and a specific gravity of 4.45.

It is a medium to low temperature hydrothermal mineral occurring with quartz, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, bornite, tetrahedrite–tennantite, chalcocite, covellite and baryte. It occurs in the mineral deposits at Butte, Montana, San Juan Mountains, Colorado and at both Bingham Canyon and Tintic, Utah. It is also found in the copper mines of Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and the Philippines. Enargite was originally described as a new species from the copper mines of the San Francisco vein, Junin Department, Peru. The name is from Greek έναργής ("distinct"), in reference to its distinct cleavage. Enargite is related to lazarevicite (named after M. Lazarevic), which has the same chemical formula, but cubic crystalline structure.

Enargite can form crystals in long cylinders that can be very shiny, beautiful, and attractive to collectors. The mineral is a reasonably common ore of copper, an important commercial product used in wiring, motors, piping, cookware, and many other products.

It takes its name from the Greek word enarge, "distinct".