Calamine

An early name that was once used for some secondary zinc minerals, most commonly smithsonite and hemimorphite, but also hydrozincite, willemite, sauconite and probably other zinc minerals, which often occur in intimate mixtures with each other. It could thus be best classified as a secondary zinc ore, typically replacing sphalerite. Pough's "A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals" (4th ed. is 1976) suggests that the term "calamine" was preferred in Europe for smithsonite, but was preferred in the US for hemimorphite. He added that "calamine" as a US usage fell out of favour in preference to hemimorphite, presumably sometime before 1976. Due to the ambiguity, the term is best avoided.