Galena is a lead sulfide mineral with the ideal formula PbS and is the principal ore mineral of lead. It occurs in hydrothermal veins, sediment-hosted deposits, volcanogenic massive sulfide systems, and other base-metal mineralization, commonly with sphalerite and other sulfides. Galena may also contain economically significant silver, making its composition and mineral associations important to both resource evaluation and processing.
These elements are often found is this element in the following Deposit Types:
Deposit Type: Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide (VMS) - Sulfide deposits formed by seafloor hydrothermal systems and commonly enriched in copper, zinc, lead, gold, and silver.
Galena is the principal lead-bearing sulfide mineral in lead-bearing VMS deposits.