Antimony Antimony Antimony is a chemical element with symbol Sb (from ) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (SbS). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were powdered for use as medicine and cosmetics, often known by the Arabic name, kohl. Metallic antimony was also known, but it was erroneously identified as lead upon its discovery. The earliest known description of the metal in the West was written in 1540 by Vannoccio Biringuccio. For some time, China has been the largest producer of antimony and its
Sulfosalt minerals Sulfosalt minerals Sulfosalt minerals are those complex sulfide minerals with the general formula: ABS; where A represents a metal such as copper, lead, silver, iron, and rarely mercury, zinc, vanadium; B usually represents semi-metal such as arsenic, antimony, bismuth, and rarely germanium, or metals like tin and rarely vanadium; and S is sulfur or rarely selenium or/and tellurium. The Strunz classification includes the sulfosalts in a "sulfides and sulfosalts" superclass. A group which have a similar appearing formulas are the sulfarsenides (for example cobaltite (Co,Fe)AsS). In sulfarsenides the arsenic substitutes for sulfur whereas in the sulfosalts the arsenic substitutes for