[3] The mineral occurs as cleavable masses; cleavage fragments are nearly perfectly rhombohedral in shape.

[3] Benstonite is known to occur in Canada, China, India, Italy, Namibia, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

[4] It occurs in association with alstonite, barite, barytocalcite, calcite, daqingshanite, fluorite, huntite, monazite, phlogopite, pyrite, sphalerite, strontianite, and quartz.

[6] Orlando J. Benston[4] of Malvern, Arkansas, visited a barite mine near the Magnet Cove igneous complex on New Year's Eve, 1954.

[5] Type specimens are held at Victor Goldschmidt University in Germany and the National Museum of Natural History in the United States.