Formula: TiO₂

Species: Oxides

Colour: Blood red, brownish yellow, brown-red, yellow, greyish-black, black, brown, bluish or violet

Lustre: Adamantine, Metallic

Hardness: 6 – 6½

Specific Gravity: 4.23

Crystal System: Tetragonal

Member of: Rutile Group

Name: The name rutile was first introduced by the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1800. The name is from the Latin rutilus, meaning “reddish.” The mineral was already known under other names, such as “red schorl” and some other names, some of them later recognized as synonyms or varieties. The element titanium was described by Klaproth (1795) from a specimen of hungarischen rother schörl (huangarian red schorl) from what is todays Slovakia. Richard Kirwan (1796) described the mineral under the name titanite (in Mindat see the entry titanite (of Kirwan)) and Haüy (1801) used the name titane oxydé.

Type Locality: Rutile type locality, Horcajuelo de la Sierra, Community of Madrid, Spain

Polymorph of: Akaogiite, Anatase, Brookite, Riesite,

The most common member of the Rutile Group. Rutile is one of the five forms of titanium dioxide, TiO₂, found in nature.