Samsonite (mineral)

Samsonite is a silver manganese antimony sulfosalt mineral with formula Ag₄MnSb₂S₆. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system with a typical slender radiating prismatic habit. It is metallic black to steel black with no cleavage and a brittle to conchoidal fracture. In thin fragments it appears reddish brown in transmitted light and also leaves a red streak. It is soft, Mohs hardness of 2.5, and has a specific gravity of 5.51.

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It was first described in 1910 for an occurrence in the Samson Vein of the Sankt Andreasberg silver mines, Harz Mountains, Germany.

References

• Palache, C., H. Berman, and C. Frondel (1944) Dana’s system of mineralogy, (7th edition), v. I, pp. 393–395
• Webmineral data
• Mindat with location data
• Mineral Data Publishing - PDF