However, some specimens are exceptional and boast a bright red color with a high adamantine luster. The best specimens in the world come from Broken Hill , New South Wales, Australia. Unfortunately, these specimens are the result of a mine fire and mineral purists do not like their human influenced origins. Minium gets its name from the Minius River in Northwest Spain. The name, minium has also been applied to cinnabar , a red mercury sulfide, but now it is exclusively used world wide to refer to the red lead oxide.
Minium is more well known to the makers of pigments than it is to mineral collectors.
The artificially produced minium is used as a pigment in paints and dyes although the health concerns of lead have greatly diminished this role. Minium is a member of the Spinel Group of oxide minerals. The two different valences of lead occupy different locations in the spinel type structure. Minium's structure is not exactly the same as spinel as spinel is an isometric mineral and minium is a tetragonal mineral. The small size of the lead ions, no doubt, cause a distortion in the spinel structure.