Arsenic Elements,
Alloys and Symbols

• Native Arsenic, As. 
• Realgar, AsS.
• Orpiment, As2S3.  
• Arsenopyrite, FeAsS.       

Arsenic in minerals ordinary plays the part of a nonmetallic elements, similar to in its chemicals relations. It forms three classes of compounds,the arsenides, the sulpharsenites and the arsenates. The number of mineralds which contain arsenic is considerable but only a few can be considered as distinctively arsenic minerals. Arsenopyrite is the only one which at present serves as an ore. Most of the arsenic oxide produced comes as a byproduct in the smelting of arsenical ores for copper, gold, lead, etc. Large amounts of the oxide are obtained from the smelting of the copper ores Butte, Mont., the mineral enargite, Cu3AsS4, being its chief source. The oxide is also produced at smelting plants in Washington and Utah. Arsenopyrite has been mined at Briton, Virginia.

Metallic arsenic is used in some alloys, particularly with lead in shot metal. Arsenic is chiefly used, however, in the form of white arsenic, or arsenious oxide. This is employed in medicine, as a poison, as a preservative, in making Paris green (an arsenate and acetate of copper), as a pigment, in glass manufacture, etc.