Image: Wikimedia Commons

scheelite

Tungstate mineral

Instance of: mineral species
1
Sources
1.Stated in The IMA List of Minerals (November 2018)
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Subclass of: scheelite group
1
Sources
1.Stated in Fleischer’s Glossary of Mineral Species 2014
View statement on Wikidata ↗
, phosphate mineral

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Scheelite is a calcium tungstate mineral with the chemical formula CaWO4. It is an important ore of tungsten (wolfram). Scheelite is originally named after Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786). Well-formed crystals are sought by collectors and are occasionally fashioned into gemstones when suitably free of flaws. Scheelite has been synthesized using the Czochralski process; the material produced may be used to imitate diamond, as a scintillator, or as a solid-state lasing medium. It was also used in radium paint in the same fashion as was zinc sulphide, and Thomas Edison invented a fluoroscope with a calcium tungstate-coated screen, making the images six times brighter than those with barium platinocyanide; the latter chemical allowed Röntgen to discover X-rays in early November 1895. The semi-precious stone marketed as 'blue scheelite' is actually a rock type consisting mostly of calcite and dolomite, with occasional traces of yellow-orange scheelite.

Overview

All data

34 statements · 35% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Formula: CaWO₄
Nickel-Strunz 9th edition (updated 2009): 7.GA.05
1
Sources
1.Stated in mineralienatlas.de
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Nickel-Strunz '10th ed', review of (9th ed/ 2009 update): 7.GA.05
1
Sources
1.Stated in MinDat
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IMA status and/or rank: grandfathered mineral (G)
1
Sources
1.Stated in IMA/CNMNC List of Mineral Names (March 2007)
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Streak color: white
Crystal system: tetragonal crystal system
Named after: Carl Wilhelm Scheele
1
Sources
1.Stated in A Dictionary of the Names of Minerals
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IMA Mineral Symbol: Sch
1
Sources
1.Stated in IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Strunz 8th edition (series ID, updated): VI/F.01
1
Sources
1.Stated in Mineralogische Tabellen : Eine Klassifizierung der Mineralien auf kristallchemischer Grundlage, mit einer Einfuhrung in die Kristallchemie (1982)
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Space group: space group I4₁/a
Density: 6,099.85 kg/m³ temperature: 0 K · state of matter: solid
Point group: tetragonal-dipyramidal

On other databases

20 identifiers linking scheelite across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

35%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 10, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). scheelite (Q409096). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/scheelite-Q409096