It occurs as massive encrustations and as hemimorphic six-sided pyramidal crystals which vary in color from a honey yellow through shades of red to brown.

Greenockite belongs to the wurtzite group and is isostructural with it at high temperatures.

Most cadmium is recovered as a byproduct of copper, zinc, and lead mining.

It was first recognized in 1840 in Bishopton, Scotland, during the cutting of a tunnel for the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway.

The extracted cadmium has various industrial use, such as electrical nickel-cadmium (NiCd) rechargeable batteries, electroplating, high temp alloys, plating steel and other metals that corrode easily, and use in control rods for some nuclear reactors.