Home > Tsumeb Minerals – December 5 > MS1292 Söhngeite

Söhngeite - Sold


Söhngeite has a simple chemistry: gallium hydroxide. It was the second mineral containing essential gallium discovered, now 1 of 7 such species. Söhngeite has an orthorhombic crystal structure derived from perovskite, which has a great propensity to twin (Mitchell et al. 2017). Strunz (1965) named the mineral in honor of Adolf Paul Gerhard Söhnge (1913-2006), former chief geologist of the Tsumeb Corporation, and author of Tsumeb: A Historical Sketch (1976).

Söhngeite here forms thick tabular crystals twinned at right angles in an aggregate approximately 2 mm across. Associated minerals in the vuggy sulfide matrix are powdery white quartz and tan siderite microcrystals. Rare!