Hibbingite is a rare iron hydroxychloride mineral typically found in altered mafic rocks, often occurring in association with magnetite and goethite. Collectors identify it by its distinct tabular habit and characteristic reddish-brown color, which can deepen to black in massive samples.
Is this hibbingite?
5-step field checkRun through these checks against the specimen in your hand. The more boxes tick, the more confident the ID.
- 1Test the hardnessTry to scratch hibbingite with a known reference. Hibbingite sits at Mohs 3.5, softer than the next harder reference, harder than the previous one.
- 2Check the streakDrag the specimen across an unglazed porcelain plate. Streak: white.
- 3Read the lusterHold the specimen under a strong light. Luster: vitreous.
- 4Match the color rangeCompare against the expected color range: colorless, yellow, light green, red.
- 5Look at form & habitCrystal system: orthorhombic. Typical habit: tabular crystals, massive, granular.
Often confused with
Hibbingite vs. its common look-alikes, and how to tell them apart in the field.
How to tell apart: Streak differs, so Hibbingite leaves white, Atacamite leaves apple-green; luster reads vitreous on Hibbingite and adamantine to vitreous on Atacamite.
How to tell apart: Streak differs, so Hibbingite leaves white, Paratacamite leaves green.
Often found alongside hibbingite
Minerals reported to co-occur with hibbingite. Spotting these in float or country rock is a strong cue you are in the right ground.
All properties
- Chemical formula
- Fe₂Cl(OH)₃
- Mohs hardness
- 3.5
- Density
- 3.04 g/cm³
- Streak
- White
- Luster
- Vitreous
- Transparency
- Semitransparent
- Crystal system
- Orthorhombic
- Crystal habit
- Tabular crystals, massive, granular
- Cleavage
- One direction, good, perhaps a parting
- Rarity
- Rare
- Uses
- Collector
- Host rock
- In serpentinized troctolite and peridotite (Hibbing, Minnesota, USA); in fractures in chlorine-rich portions of a Cu-Ni orebody (Strathcona mine, Canada); in terrestrially weathered iron meteorites
Where rockhounds find hibbingite
Classic worldwide localities
- Drill cores in the Duluth complex, near Hibbing, St. Louis Co., Minnesota, USA
- Strathcona mine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
- Noril'sk region, western Siberia, Russia
Field-hunting tip
Where it forms: In serpentinized troctolite and peridotite (Hibbing, Minnesota, USA); in fractures in chlorine-rich portions of a Cu-Ni orebody (Strathcona mine, Canada); in terrestrially weathered iron meteorites. If you start seeing akaganeite, magnetite, maghemite in float, you are in the right ground. Typical habit: tabular crystals, massive, granular. Train your eye for that shape before scanning the outcrop.
Common questions
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What rocks look like hibbingite?+
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Find hibbingite on the map
RockHoundR shows mapped rockhounding spots, access rules, and lets you log every find.
