Properties
| Category | Carbonate mineral |
|---|---|
| Formula | ZnCO3 |
| Crystal system | Trigonal |
| Color | White, grey, yellow, green to apple-green, blue, pink, purple, bluish grey, and brown |
| Crystal habit | Uncommon as crystals, typically botryoidal, reniform, spherulitic; stalactitic, earthy, compact massive |
| Cleavage | Perfect on |
| Fracture | Uneven, sub-conchoidal |
| Tenacity | Brittle |
| Mohs scale hardness | 4.5 |
| Luster | Vitreous, may be pearly |
| Streak | White |
| Diaphaneity | Translucent |
| Specific gravity | 4.4–4.5 |
From the Wikipedia article
Smithsonite, also known as zinc spar, is the mineral form of zinc carbonate (ZnCO3). Historically, smithsonite was identified with hemimorphite before it was realized that they were two different minerals. The two minerals are very similar in appearance and the term calamine has been used for both, leading to some confusion. The distinct mineral smithsonite was named in 1832 by François Sulpice Beudant in honor of English scientist James Smithson (c. 1765–1829), who first identified the mineral in 1802.
Source
Source record: crystal-compendium/smithsonite/minerals.json. Fetched from English Wikipedia by the operator 2 October 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonite — revision id 1359821835. Text and properties from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.