Formula: PbCr⁶⁺O₄

Species:

Colour: Orange, red, yellow; orange-red in transmitted light.

Lustre: Sub-Adamantine, Sub-Vitreous, Resinous, Waxy

Hardness: 2½ – 3

Specific Gravity: 5.97 – 6.02

Crystal System: Monoclinic

Name: Originally recognized by Mikhail Vassil’evich Lomonosov in 1763 as a red lead ore. The name crocoite comes from the Greek κρόκος “crocon” = saffron, alluding to the saffron-orange color of its powder.

Type Locality: Tsvetnoi Mine, Uspenskaya Hill, Berezovsk deposit, Beryozovsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast – Russia

Crocoite is commonly found as crystals, usually as long prismatic crystals and more rarely as equant crystals, but are most often poorly terminated, and are usually of a bright hyacinth-red color, which are translucent and have an adamantine to vitreous lustre. When fine-grained it can be bright yellow to orange, and some crystals are dark red.