Witherite is very rarely faceted; if it is faceted, it is quite rare. Stones are not especially beautiful, and they are soft and fragile as well. Their only major attribute is rarity. Witherite is fairly easy to cut but somewhat difficult to polish.
Witherite Value
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Witherite Information
| Data | Value |
| Name | Witherite |
| Crystallography | Orthorhombic. Crystals twinned to yield pseudohexagonal dipyramids; prismatic; globular, botryoidal; granular; fibrous. |
| Colors | Colorless, white, gray with a tinge of yellow, green, or brown. |
| Luster | Vitreous to resinous. |
| Hardness | 3-3.5. |
| Density | 4.27-4.79. |
| Birefringence | 0.148. |
| Cleavage | Distinct 1 direction. Fracture uneven. Brittle. |
| Stone Sizes | Witherite is not normally cut into cabochons because the color is too pale to be attractive. Faceted gems, even those under 5 carats, are usually more translucent than transparent. |
| Luminescence | Green and yellow in SW (England) with phosphorescence. Yellowish, with phosphorescence, in LW. Fluoresces in X-rays. |
| Spectral | Not diagnostic. Effervesces in acid. |
| Formula | BaCO3. |
WITHERITE Series to Strontianite: SrCO3.
Optics: a= 1.529; /3 = 1.676; y l 1.677.
Biaxial (-), 2V 116°.
Occurrence: A low-temperature mineral in hydrothermal vein deposits.
Lockport, New York; Kentucky; Montana; Arizona; California.
Austria; Germany; Czechoslovakia; France; Japan; USSR; England.
Minerva Mine, Rosiclare, Illinois: large yellowish crystals.
Comments: Witherite is very rarely faceted; if it is faceted, it is quite rare. Stones are not especially beautiful, and they are soft and fragile as well. Their only major attribute is rarity. Witherite is fairly easy to cut but somewhat difficult to polish.
Name: After William Withering, an English physician and mineralogist, who first noted the mineral.
