Formula: BaCO₃

Species:

Colour: Colourless, white, greyish, light yellow; colourless in transmitted light.

Lustre: Vitreous, Resinous

Hardness: 3 – 3½

Specific Gravity: 4.289 – 4.293

Crystal System: Orthorhombic

Member of: Aragonite Group

Name: Named after William Withering (1741-1799), English physician and naturalist, who first described the mineral.

Type Locality: Brownley Hill Mine (Bloomsberry Horse Level), Nenthead, Alston Moor, Eden, Cumbria – England, UK

The Ba analogue of strontianite. Found in low-temperature hydrothermal vein deposits.