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Material World
Mineral · Bi2S3

Bismuthinite

Bismuth sulfide — the ore of the heaviest element that is, for practical purposes, not poisonous.

Ore

Bismuthinite is bismuth sulfide, and it looks a great deal like stibnite — soft, lead-grey, metallic, bladed. Density separates them: bismuthinite is markedly heavier, as bismuth is a much heavier element than antimony.

Bismuth's interest is that it sits among the heavy metals and behaves nothing like them. Lead, thallium, mercury and polonium are all seriously toxic; bismuth is used in indigestion medicine. That anomaly is why bismuth compounds have steadily replaced lead in solders, shot, pigments and plumbing fittings as lead regulation has tightened.

Medium confidence Weak evidence checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source

How this connects

Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.

is an ore of

  • Bismuth — element · the principal bismuth ore, though most bismuth comes from lead refining Wikidata

is commonly confused with

  • Stibnite — mineral · both soft, bladed and lead-grey; bismuthinite is markedly denser

is a component of

  • Greisen — rock · the bismuth that travels with tin and tungsten, and is recovered as a by-product of them

contains

Sources

  • Material World
    Our own writing
  • Wikidata
    Wikimedia Foundation · Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication)

Questions this page answers

Where it comes from, and what it becomes

Follow Bismuthinite back to what it starts as, and forward into what it becomes. Each step is a documented one — a real route material takes, not a chain of inference.

Downstream — what it becomes

  • Bismuthinite → is an ore of (the principal bismuth ore, though most bismuth comes from lead refining) → Bismuth → is used as (in low-melting alloys, and as the non-toxic replacement for lead in solders, free-machining brass and fishing weights — an element most people have also swallowed, as the subsalicylate taken for indigestion) → Alloying
  • Bismuthinite → is a component of (the bismuth that travels with tin and tungsten, and is recovered as a by-product of them) → Greisen