sylvite, halide mineral, potassium chloride (KCl), the chief source of potassium. It is rarer than halite (sodium chloride) and occurs as soft, bitter-tasting, white or grayish, glassy cubes or as masses with halite and gypsum in evaporite deposits in the vicinity of Stassfurt, Ger., and in southwestern New Mexico, U.S. It was first found (1823) as an incrustation on lava from Mt. Vesuvius.