Cadmium APEX Mineral

Cadmium (Cd #48) is the next element on the periodic table for my APEX mineral collection.   

Wikipedia Cadmium

Cadmium Minerals - There are very few Cadmium minerals.  

Greenockite (CdS) with 78% Cadmium is our APEX Mineral since it is really the only practical choice.  Greenockite is  always associated with Sphalerite (ZnS) since there is no geologic process that can separate Zinc and Cadmium. 

Cadmium is a common impurity in Zinc ores, and it is most often isolated during the production of Zinc.

Cadmium and its compounds had no useful role historically.

Cadmium use is declining due to toxicity.  It is mostly used in nickel–cadmium batteries and cadmium telluride solar panels.

Cadmium has no known useful role in higher organisms.  Marine diatoms use Cadmium in place of Zinc since they live in very low zinc environments.