Amblygonite is a fluorophosphate mineral, (Li,Na)AlPO4(F,OH), composed of lithium, sodium, aluminium, phosphate, fluoride and hydroxide. The mineral occurs in pegmatite deposits and is easily mistaken for albite and other feldspars. Its density, cleavage and flame test for lithium are diagnostic. Amblygonite forms a series with montebrasite, the low fluorine endmember. Geologic occurrence is in granite pegmatites, high-temperature tin veins, and greisens. Amblygonite occurs with spodumene, apatite, lepidolite, tourmaline, and other lithium-bearing minerals in pegmatite veins. It contains about 10% lithium, and has been utilized as a source of lithium. The chief commercial sources have historically been the deposits of California and France.
Beryl ( BERR-əl) is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2Si6O18. Well-known varieties of beryl include emerald and aquamarine. Naturally occurring, hexagonal crystals of beryl can be up to several meters in size, but terminated crystals are relatively rare. Pure beryl is colorless, but it is frequently tinted by impurities; possible colors are green, blue, yellow, pink, and red (the rarest). It is an ore source of beryllium.
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of SiO2. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar.
Spinel is the magnesium/aluminium member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula MgAl
2O
4 in the cubic crystal system. Its name comes from the Latin word spinella, a diminutive form of spine, in reference to its pointed crystals.
Titanite, or sphene (from Ancient Greek σφηνώ (sphēnṓ) 'wedge'), is a calcium titanium nesosilicate mineral, CaTiSiO5. Trace impurities of iron and aluminium are typically present. Also commonly present are rare earth metals including cerium and yttrium; calcium may be partly replaced by thorium.
Tourmaline is a crystalline silicate mineral group in which boron is compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. This gemstone comes in a wide variety of colors.
Garnets are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
Spodumene is a pyroxene mineral consisting of lithium aluminium inosilicate, LiAl(SiO3)2, and is a commercially important source of lithium. It occurs as colorless to yellowish, purplish, or lilac kunzite (see below), yellowish-green or emerald-green hiddenite, prismatic crystals, often of great size. Single crystals of 14.3 m (47 ft) in size are reported from the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States.
Sodalite is a tectosilicate mineral with the formula Na
8(Al
6Si
6O
24)Cl
2, with royal blue varieties widely used as an ornamental gemstone. Although massive sodalite samples are opaque, crystals are usually transparent to translucent. Sodalite is a member of the sodalite group with hauyne, nosean, lazurite and tugtupite.
Cuprite is an oxide mineral composed of copper(I) oxide Cu2O, and is a minor ore of copper.
Benitoite is a rare blue barium titanium cyclosilicate mineral, found in hydrothermally altered serpentinite. It forms in low temperature, high pressure environments typical of subduction zones at convergent plate boundaries. Benitoite fluoresces under short wave ultraviolet light, appearing bright blue to bluish white in color. The more rarely seen clear to white benitoite crystals fluoresce red under long-wave UV light.
Cordierite (mineralogy) or iolite (gemology) is a magnesium iron aluminium cyclosilicate. Iron is almost always present and a solid solution exists between Mg-rich cordierite and Fe-rich sekaninaite with a series formula: (Mg,Fe)2Al3(Si5AlO18) to (Fe,Mg)2Al3(Si5AlO18). A high-temperature polymorph exists, indialite, which is isostructural with beryl and has a random distribution of Al in the (Si,Al)6O18 rings.
Spessartine is a nesosilicate, manganese aluminium garnet species, Mn2+3Al2(SiO4)3. This mineral is sometimes mistakenly referred to as spessartite.
Andradite is a mineral species of the garnet group. It is a nesosilicate, with formula Ca3Fe2Si3O12.
Hauyne or haüyne, also called hauynite or haüynite, is a tectosilicate sulfate mineral with endmember formula Na3Ca(Si3Al3)O12(SO4). As much as 5 wt % K2O may be present, and also H2O and Cl. It is a feldspathoid and a member of the sodalite group. Hauyne was first described in 1807 from samples discovered in Vesuvian lavas in Monte Somma, Italy, and was named in 1807 by Brunn-Neergard for the French crystallographer René Just Haüy (1743–1822). It is sometimes used as a gemstone.
Vishnevite, or sulfatic cancrinite, is a mineral of the cancrinite group with the chemical formula (Na, Ca, K)6(Si, Al)12O24[(SO4),(CO3), Cl2]2-4·nH2O. It has hexagonal crystals.
Bystrite is a silicate mineral with the formula (Na,K)7Ca(Si6Al6)O24S4.5•(H2O), and a member of the cancrinite mineral group. It is a hexagonal crystal, with a 3m point group. The mineral may have been named after the Malaya Bystraya deposits in Russia, where it was found.
Farneseite is a mineral from the cancrinite sodalite group with 14 layer stacking. It is a complex silicate mineral with formula (Na,Ca,K)56(Al6Si6O24)7(SO4)12·6H2O. It was named after a location in Farnese, Lazio, Italy. It is a member of the cancrinite-sodalite group, approved in 2004 as a new mineral species. The group is characterized by the number of stacking layers making up each member, with farneseite being one of newest minerals in the group with a 14 layer stacking structure. It is a clear transparent mineral and has a hexagonal crystal system with crystal class of 6/m and space group of P63/m. The specimens discovered in Farnese were in a pyroclastic rock from the Làtera Cauldera region.
Alloriite is a silicate mineral that belongs to the cancrinite group, or more specifically the feldspathoid group. It is currently only found in Italy. It was discovered by and named for the Italian mineralogist Roberto Allori, an avid mineral collector who has also done research on piergorite and willhendersonite. The mineral appears as a crystal that is approximately 1.5 by 2mm in length. The crystal grows as both tabular and prismatic crystals, and commonly occurs with sanidine, biotite, andradite, and apatite. It was approved of being a mineral in 2006 by the International Mineralogical Association. Afghanite is a cancrinite group mineral that is very similar to alloriite in both its chemical composition and its physical properties.
Balliranoite ((Na,K)6Ca2(Si6Al6O24)Cl2(CO)3) is a mineral that was discovered at Monte Somma – Vesuvio volcanic complex, Campania, Italy. This mineral is named in honor of Paolo Ballirano (b. 1964), Italian crystallographer and professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Rome ‘‘La Sapienza’’, who has made important contributions to the crystal chemistry of cancrinite-group minerals.
Radioactive 2.28% (K)
