Stibnite is an antimony sulfide. It is the chief ore of antimony and gets its name from the Latin name for the element, stibnium. Alloyed with lead, antimony greatly enhances the hardness and strength of the lead, which has been used for things like type metal, batteries, and bullets. Antimony compounds find many uses as pigments, in ceramics and glass, and in the manufacture of flame-proof products.
Although stibnite was known from China for quite some time, superlative specimens such as this one pictured year did not reach Western markets until the early 1980s. Destined to be classics, the quality some of these new specimens rivals or exceeds even their famous Japanese counterparts, though the latter locality remains unsurpassed in terms of crystal size.
These slender lustrous crystals exhibit the typical habit for the species. Many crystals of stibnite have a bent appearance; some are just visible in this photograph. That is not a sign of damage, they have crystallized that way.
