Cinnabar from Spain "Rockshop" sales box with 54 pieces.

The mineral cinnabar is a mercury sulfide with the chemical formula HgS. The gray, brown or dark red (vermilion) cinnabar has a bright red stripe color and a complete cleavage according to the crystal plane [1010]. The crystal system is trigonal, the density is high at 8.1. The hardness is 2 to 2.5. Cinnabar is not radioactive. The rare metacinnaberite is still found in California. The chemical composition is the same as that of cinnabar, but the structure is different (namely cubic). The word cinnabar originally meant vermilion and comes from Persian (shangarf). It has reached our language through Greek, Latin and French. Cinnabar is mainly found in low-temperature hydrothermal veins. The type location and long an important site of mercury as an ore is Almadén, Spain, where it was already mined by the Celts. Cinnabar is the most important mercury ore. Cinnabar was already known in ancient times and has also been used as a pigment in China for over 1000 years. Mercury can be obtained from cinnabar by sublimation at 583 ° C (856 K). This releases the liquid mercury.