page_title: Galena
section_title: Lead ore deposits
hierarchical_section_title: Galena / Lead ore deposits
caption_attribution_description: English: Calcite, Galena Locality: Joplin Field, Tri-State District, Jasper County, Missouri, USA (Locality at mindat.org) Size: 5.1 x 3.2 x 2.8 cm. A striking old Joplin combination specimen, featuring a translucent calcite twin that has wrapped itself around a cube of galena. Deutsch: Calcit, Galenit Fundort: Joplin Field, Tri-State District, Jasper County, Missouri, Vereinigte Staaten (Fundort bei mindat.org) Größe: 5.1 x 3.2 x 2.8 cm.
context_page_description: Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide. It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver.
  Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system often showing octahedral forms. It is often associated with the minerals sphalerite, calcite and fluorite.
context_section_description: Galena is the main ore of lead, used since ancient times. Because of its somewhat low melting point, it was easy to liberate by smelting. It typically forms in low-temperature sedimentary deposits.
  In some deposits the galena contains about 1–2% silver, a byproduct that far outweighs the main lead ore in revenue. In these deposits significant amounts of silver occur as included silver sulfide mineral phases or as limited silver in solid solution within the galena structure. These argentiferous galenas have long been an important ore of silver.
  Galena deposits are found worldwide in various environments. Noted deposits include those at Freiberg in Saxony; Cornwall, the Mendips in Somerset, Derbyshire, and Cumberland in England; the Madan and Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria; the Sullivan Mine of British Columbia; Broken Hill and Mount Isa in Australia; and the ancient mines of Sardinia. In the United States, it occurs most notably in the Mississippi Valley type deposits of the Lead Belt in southeastern Missouri, and in the Driftless Area of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
  Galena also was a major mineral of the zinc-lead mines of the tri-state district around Joplin in southwestern Missouri and the adjoining areas of Kansas and Oklahoma. Galena is also an important ore mineral in the silver mining regions of Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Montana. Of the latter, the Coeur d'Alene district of northern Idaho was most prominent.
  The largest documented crystal of galena is composite cubo-octahedra from the Great Laxey Mine, Isle of Man, measuring 25 cm × 25 cm × 25 cm (10 in × 10 in × 10 in).
caption: Cubic galena with calcite from Jasper County, Missouri, USA; 5.1 cm × 3.2 cm × 2.8 cm (2.0 in × 1.3 in × 1.1 in)
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