Bismuth

A heavy, pinkish-silver metal. Rainbow staircase crystals sold in shops are lab-grown from melted bismuth.

Bismuth specimen — Photo: Alchemist-hp (talk) (www.pse-mendelejew.de), FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify bismuth

Silvery with a pinkish tint.
Heavy and brittle, not bendable.
Shop specimens: iridescent hopper 'staircase' crystals.

Often confused with

Native Silver
Silver bends and tarnishes black.
Compare side by side

Where it's found

Tasna, Bolivia
Saxony, Germany
Australia

Uses

Low-melting alloys, cosmetics and stomach medicines.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling.

Did you know?

Bismuth is technically radioactive, but its half-life is about a billion times the age of the universe.

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