Sphalerite is one of the very few minerals that has a total of six directions of cleavage. If all of them were to be perfectly cleaved on a single crystal it would form a rhombic dodecahedron. Identifying all six directions in a single cleaved crystal is quite difficult due to the multiple twinning and the many directions. Only the fact that there is abundant cleavage at different directions can easily be seen in most cleaved specimens.