Cadmium Facts

The name for the element cadmium comes from the Latin cadmia and Greek kadmeia, which are words for calamine. Calamine is zinc carbonate, so you might be wondering why an element would be named for the compound of a different element. The answer is that cadmium was discovered as an impurity in zinc carbonate. Cadmium is most often found associated with zinc ores. Tell me more about cadmium...