Wulfenite

Formula: Pb(MoO₄)

Colour: Orange-yellow, yellow, honey-yellow, reddish-orange, rarely colourless, grey, brown, olive-green and even black.

Lustre: Adamantine, Sub-Adamantine, Resinous

Hardness: 2½ – 3

Specific Gravity: 6.5 – 7.5

Crystal System: Tetragonal

Member of: Scheelite Group

Name: Renamed in 1845 by Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger in honor of Franz Xavier von Wulfen , botanist, mineralogist, alpinist and a member of the Order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit). Wulfen authored a monograph on the lead ores of Bleiberg, Austria. This mineral was originally named “plumbum spatosum flavo-rubrum, ex Annaberg, Austria” in 1772 by Ignaz von Born. In 1781, Joseph Franz Edler von Jacquin called the mineral “Kärntherischer bleispath”. Other names were later proposed.

Type Locality: Bad Bleiberg, Villach-Land District, Carinthia – Austria

Stolzite-Wulfenite Series.