Rocksday

Torbernite

A radioactive copper uranium phosphate forming emerald-green square plates.

Torbernite specimen
Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify torbernite

  • Emerald-green square tablets.
  • Not fluorescent (the copper suppresses it).
  • Radioactive.

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Musonoi, DR Congo
  • Cornwall, England
  • Saxony, Germany

Uses

Collector specimens; minor uranium ore.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling. Radioactive.

Did you know?

It slowly loses water and turns into metatorbernite in dry air.

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