Home > Silver and Gold Minerals – January 7 > MS1484 Boleite

Boleite - Sold


Boleite is one of three lead copper oxychloride minerals first described from Baja California. Mallard (1891) named boleite after Boleo, site of the type locality. Boleite has a complex crystal structure that eluded mineralogists for over a century until Cooper and Hawthorne (2000) finally resolved the chemical formula: KPb26 Ag9Cu24Cl62(OH)48. Most crystals occur suspended in clay, and fall out of matrix when the clay dries out. This sample is a loose, complete 4 mm cube. It is mounted in a thumbnail box, with a glossy label. This is certainly a classic Williard Perkins thumbnail, although his name is nowhere on the box. A piece of history.