Introduction: realgar occurs in low-temperature hydrothermal veins with other sulphide minerals and it is also found in hot spring or fumarolic deposits and as a volcanic sublimate. Associated minerals include calcite, pyrite and other arsenic or antimony compounds such as stibnite, pararealgar and orpiment - the latter two being alteration products. Realgar is a distinctive bright scarlet colour, which one might think would aid in its identification: however the situation is less straightforward than that because upon exposure to daylight realgar immediately begins to alter to similar-looking pararealgar. In time this alteration process and the structural changes it brings about cause the realgar to crumble to powder - incidentally, the name is derived from the Arabic 'rahj al ghar' - 'powder of the mine'. Specimens of realgar therefore require careful storage away from light sources.

Occurrence in Wales: the discovery of realgar in Wales happened relatively recently, in the late 1990s at Dolyhir Quarry in the Welsh Borders. Here, it is but one component of a particularly exotic metalliferous mineral assemblage.

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