Skip to content
EntityQ204498· pop 19· linked from 63 articles

Otavite is a rare cadmium carbonate mineral with the formula CdCO3. Otavite crystallizes in the trigonal system and forms encrustations and small scalenohedral crystals that have a pearly to adamantine luster. The color is white to reddish to yellow brown. Its Mohs hardness is 3.5 to 4 and the specific gravity is 5.04. Associated minerals include azurite, calcite, malachite, and smithsonite.

Key facts

Mineral.name
Otavite
Mineral.image
Otavite-89481.jpg
Mineral.caption
Otavite, Tsumeb, Oshikoto Region, Namibia
Mineral.category
Carbonate minerals
Mineral.formula
CdCO3
Mineral.IMAsymbol
Ota
Mineral.strunz
5.AB.05
Mineral.system
Trigonal
Mineral.class
Hexagonal scalenohedral (m) H-M symbol: ( 2/m)
Mineral.symmetry
Rc

via Wikipedia infobox

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

1 sections
Contents
  • References

Otavite is a rare cadmium carbonate mineral with the formula CdCO3. Otavite crystallizes in the trigonal system and forms encrustations and small scalenohedral crystals that have a pearly to adamantine luster. The color is white to reddish to yellow brown. Its Mohs hardness is 3.5 to 4 and the specific gravity is 5.04. Associated minerals include azurite, calcite, malachite, and smithsonite.

It was first described in 1906 from the Tsumeb district near Otavi, Namibia.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “otavite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.