How do I identify Langite?

Langite can be identified by its hardness of 2.5 - 3 on the Mohs scale, Blue color, Vitreous, Silky luster, Monoclinic crystal system. Look for these key characteristics when examining specimens.

What color is Langite?

Langite typically appears in Blue, greenish-blue. Color can vary depending on impurities and formation conditions.

Langite has a hardness of 2.5 - 3 on the Mohs scale. This makes it a soft mineral that can be scratched easily.

Langite

A variety of Minerals

Rare

What is Langite?

Langite is a rare mineral mainly found in Australia, Austria, and parts of England and Wales. This beautiful bright blue mineral is the result of oxidation. Because of its color, langite is often confused with wroewolfeite and posnjakite and needs to be differentiated with closer examination.

Langite Market Value Calculator

Estimate the market value of Langite using size, quality, and finish. This preview calculator is for quick context and is not a formal appraisal.

Langite Localities Map

See where Langite is found with a localities map, collecting zones, and geology context. Generate a sample map preview below.

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North ZoneCentral RidgeSouth Basin

Key Characteristics

Characteristics of Langite

Langite usually occurs as druses of small greenish-blue crystals which may be scaly or earthy. It is translucent, with a vitreous to silky luster and a blue-green streak. It has perfect cleavage perpendicular to the c crystal axis, and distinct cleavage perpendicular to b. Twinning is common, and typically repeated to give snowflake or star shaped groupings. The mineral is soft, with hardness 2.5 to 3, a little less than that of calcite. Fracture is uneven, and specific gravity is in the range 3.28 to 3.50, a little less than that of diamond.

Formation of Langite

Langite is an uncommon but widespread secondary mineral in the oxidised zone of copper sulfide deposits, which may be of post-mine formation. It is associated with wroewolfeite, posnjakite, serpierite, devilline, chalcophyllite, connellite, brochantite, malachite and gypsum. There are two type localities for langite, Fowey Consols, Tywardreath, Par Area, St Austell District, and St Just, St Just District, both in Cornwall, England. The type material is conserved at the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria, reference A.a.4353. Other reported occurrences include: With serpierite coating the bed of a water course affected by acid mine drainage at the Lloyd Copper Mine at Burraga, New South Wales, Australia Intergrown with ktenasite forming fibrous and botryoidal crusts and coatings less than 0.1 mm thick, at the Kintore Open Cut, Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia Associated with a new mineral mallestigite, reported in 2004, near Carinthia, Austria, on the dump of a copper-lead-zinc mine. The mallestigite formed in fractures during weathering of primary galena and tetrahedrite. Other associated minerals were anglesite, brochantite, linarite and schultenite At Silver Gill, Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria, England, partly altered to brochantite, Cu4SO4(OH)6 As microcrystals in small vugs in prehnite-quartz vein sections at the Clark Mine, Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, US