Galena/Lead

  • What is it and where is it formed?  Galena is the main ore of lead and silver.  It is a combination of lead and sulfur.  Galena is found combined with zinc, copper, and silver.  It is sometimes considered a by-product of the mining of the other minerals.  When the ore is melted, it makes lead. It is formed in the earth’s crust in hot water veins. Galena is found in igneous and sedimentary rocks.

  • How and where is it mined?  Galena is found with underground mining.  It is found in the U.S.A [Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri], Germany, Peru, Mexico, Zambia, and England.

  • What is it used for?  Galena is used in things that are made of lead.  Some of these things are:  bullets, batteries, gasoline, paint, and welding solder. Lead used to be put in paint, dishes, and cups until it was found that it was poisonous when it was swallowed.  Sometimes kids would chew on painted things because lead gave the paint a sweet taste.  This would make the kids really sick so it isn’t used for this anymore.

  • Interesting Information:

    • Johannes Gutenberg made the letters in his printing press out of lead.

    • Romans used lead to make the pipes that carried water into Rome.

 Galena

Cubic Crystal Galena
Crystal with cubic galena in it.
Mineral Characteristic What the
mineralogists say		 Kid's Guide:  What it REALLY means!
Chemical Symbol PbS It has lead and sulfur in it.
Color Silver or gray. Some darker. These are the two normal colors of the mineral.
Streak Lead gray If you crushed galena, its dust would be a dull gray.  No matter what galena sample you crush, it would be dull gray.  That’s how they identify a mineral by color.
Transparency Opaque Light will not pass through this mineral.  You can’t see through it.
Luster Metallic If you shine a light on it, galena will shine like metal.
Cleavage Perfect in 4 directions. If it is broken, it breaks into even cubes.  Each time it is broken, it will do the same.
Fracture Uneven and not seen often Because it breaks evenly in cleavage, it doesn’t shatter or fracture when it is broken.
Magnetism None It will not attract, or be attracted to, a magnet.
Hardness 2.5 This mineral is really soft.  You can scratch it with a penny.
Specific gravity 7.5 Even though it is soft, it is very heavy.  If you were to hold a piece of this, you would feel that it was very heavy compared to its size.
Crystal Shape Cubic

Cubic