This mineral occurs plentifully, though finely disseminated, in the veins of auriferous quartz in the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal. These veins are often capped by a "gossan" of brown hvematite, crystalline, amorphous, or at times pseudomorphous after iron pyrites; a good deal of similar brown hæmatite occurs also throughout the veins themselves. The Bismutite is disseminated irregularly through the veins, and also occurs in small pockets in the ferruginous gossan; it is from the latter source that the mineral was obtained for the subjoined description and analysis.

It is amorphous, pulverulent; colour greenish yellow to lemon-yellow, more rarely brownish yellow; opaque (feebly translucent, with waxy lustre under the microscope); its hardness appears to be about 8, but cannot well be determined on account of its pulverulent character. Specific gravity 6.86.