Anglesite
Anglesite is lead sulphate, PbSO4: hardness 2.5 to 3, density 6.38, adamantine, white streak. It can band around galena cores; how to tell the two apart.
Anglesite is lead sulphate, PbSO4 (IMA: Pb(SO4)): orthorhombic, hardness 2.5 to 3, measured density 6.38, adamantine, with a white streak, 68.33% lead by mass. It forms in the oxidised zone of lead deposits, often banded around a core of galena, and is named for Anglesey, Wales. Galena streaks lead-grey; anglesite, white.
In short
- Lead sulphate, a barite-group mineral. The September 2026 IMA-CNMNC Master List lists anglesite as Pb(SO4), status G, 1832, first described from the United Kingdom; the Handbook of Mineralogy sheet writes PbSO4 and files it in the barite group with baryte and celestine. It is 68.33% lead by mass, worked, the figure on is galena toxic.
- Anglesite or galena: the streak decides. Galena is lead-grey and metallic with a lead-grey streak; anglesite is colourless to grey, adamantine, with a white streak. The sheet records anglesite banded around a core of galena, so one specimen can show both.
- The galena rind, worked. Lead conserved, 10 g of galena becomes 12.67 g of anglesite, and the volume rises from 1.32 to 1.99 cm³: 1.51 times. A 20.00 g piece reads 17.36 g in water as galena and 16.87 g as anglesite.
- Documented failure: cerussite. Cerussite, PbCO3, reads 16.95 g, 0.08 g from anglesite. Both are adamantine with a white streak, and both sheets say they may fluoresce yellow. Weight cannot separate them; the cerussite page sets out what can.
- British localities on the sheet: Parys Mountain, Anglesey; Matlock and Cromford, Derbyshire; Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria; and Leadhills and Wanlockhead. The sheet marks no type locality; the IMA list gives only the country.
| Species | IMA formula | Crystal system | Hardness | Density (measured) | 20.00 g piece in water | Lustre | Streak | Fluorescence on the sheet | What separates it from anglesite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anglesite | Pb(SO4) | Orthorhombic | 2.5 to 3 | 6.38 | 16.87 g | Adamantine, resinous to vitreous | White | May fluoresce yellow under UV | Not applicable |
| Galena | PbS | Cubic | 2.5 to 2.75 | 7.58 | 17.36 g | Metallic | Lead-grey | None recorded | Streak and lustre; 0.50 g heavier in water |
| Cerussite | Pb(CO3) | Orthorhombic | 3 to 3.5 | 6.55 | 16.95 g | Adamantine, tending to vitreous, resinous | White | May fluoresce yellow under LW UV | Not weight (0.08 g); its sheet records common reticulated and stellate twins |
| Lanarkite | Pb2O(SO4) | Monoclinic | 2 to 2.5 | 6.92 | 17.11 g | Adamantine to resinous, pearly on cleavage | White | Fluoresces yellow under X-rays and LW UV | Perfect cleavage, flexible in thin laminae; 0.25 g heavier |
| Baryte | Ba(SO4) | Orthorhombic | 3 to 3.5 | 4.50 | 15.56 g | Vitreous to resinous, may be pearly | White | May fluoresce cream to spectral colours | Weight: 1.31 g lighter in water |
| Celestine | Sr(SO4) | Orthorhombic | 3 to 3.5 | 3.97 | 14.96 g | Vitreous, pearly on cleavages | Not printed | None recorded | Weight: 1.90 g lighter in water |
What is anglesite? Lead sulphate of the barite group
The names. The September 2026 IMA-CNMNC Master List gives anglesite as Pb(SO4), status G, grandfathered, 1832, with the United Kingdom as the country of first description. The Handbook of Mineralogy anglesite sheet writes PbSO4, places it in the barite group, and says the name is for its occurrence on the island of Anglesey, Wales.
What it looks like. Crystals are typically elongated with a rhomboidal cross-section, prismatic with large {210} and vertically striated, or with large {011} with {101} and {102}; tabular on {001} or {100}; or equant {111} and {211}, to 0.5 m. It is also nodular, stalactitic, granular, massive, and banded around a core of galena. Colourless to white, commonly tinted grey, also orange, yellow, green and blue, rarely violet; adamantine, resinous to vitreous; streak white. Cleavage is good on {001}. The sheet’s refractive indices are 1.877 to 1.894.
Where it forms. The Occurrence field: common in the oxidised zone of lead deposits, where it may constitute an important ore. Associates include cerussite, leadhillite, lanarkite, caledonite, linarite, brochantite, pyromorphite, wulfenite and galena. Toxicity is not covered here: see is galena toxic and toxic minerals in a collection; nothing on this page is health or handling advice.
Anglesite or galena? The streak, and the rind arithmetic
The test. Galena’s sheet gives lead-grey, metallic, with a lead-grey streak; anglesite’s gives colourless to grey, adamantine, with a white streak. On a streak plate the two are opposite ends; the method is on how to use a streak plate. The scale agrees in direction: a 20.00 g piece reads 17.36 g in water as galena and 16.87 g as anglesite, 0.50 g apart.
The rind arithmetic. The anglesite sheet records the mineral banded around a core of galena, and galena among its associates. If every lead atom is kept, the arithmetic on standard atomic weights runs: PbS, 239.26, becomes PbSO4, 303.26, so 10.00 g of galena becomes 12.67 g of anglesite. At the sheets’ densities that is 1.32 cm³ of galena becoming 1.99 cm³ of anglesite, 1.51 times the volume. Lead falls from 86.60% to 68.33% by mass, and from 6.56 to 4.36 g per cm³. The same lead as cerussite would take 1.29 times galena’s volume.
What the arithmetic does not say. It is a mass and volume balance, not a description of how any specimen formed; the sheet does not say whether lead is added or lost, and we do not. Weight in water reads the whole specimen, so a galena core inside an anglesite rind gives a reading between the two. The method is on how to measure specific gravity at home.
Anglesite or cerussite? Where weight fails
Documented failure. Cerussite, PbCO3, density 6.55, reads 16.95 g in water against anglesite’s 16.87 g: 0.08 g apart for a 20.00 g piece, inside the scatter of a home balance. Both sheets give a white streak and an adamantine lustre, and both say may fluoresce yellow. Hardness overlaps at 3.
What the sheets do separate. Cerussite’s sheet records common twinning, simple or cyclic, producing stellate pseudohexagonal or reticulated composites; the anglesite sheet records no twinning. Cerussite’s cleavage is good on {110} and {021}; anglesite’s on {001}. The cerussite page covers the separation in full and it is not repeated here.
Against baryte and celestine, its barite-group relatives, weight does work: baryte reads 15.56 g and celestine 14.96 g, at least 1.31 g lighter. A pale, adamantine, heavy crystal from a lead mine’s oxidised zone is one of the lead minerals; which one is a question for the sheets above.
Where anglesite is found: Anglesey, Leadhills, Tsumeb and Broken Hill
The Distribution field lists a few localities for well-crystallized specimens, opening with Parys Mountain, Anglesey, Wales. In Britain it adds Matlock and Cromford, Derbyshire; Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria; and Leadhills, Lanarkshire, and Wanlockhead, Dumfriesshire. Neither the sheet nor the IMA list marks a type locality: the sheet carries no [TL] tag, and the IMA list gives the United Kingdom and 1832. Beyond the name, we claim no more for Parys Mountain.
Elsewhere the sheet names Bleiberg, Austria; Mežica, Slovenia; the Siegerland, Germany; Monteponi and Montevecchio, Sardinia; Beresovsk and Nerchinsk, Russia; fine crystals at the Touissit mine, Morocco; very large crystals from Tsumeb and the Kombat mine, Namibia; the Bunker Hill mine, Idaho, and the Wheatley mine, Pennsylvania; Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico; and large crystals from Broken Hill, New South Wales, and at Dundas, Tasmania.
The rest of the reference section is at the species index. We hold no catalogue and nothing here is offered for sale; the wanted list is the only commercial route.