Month: June 2020

Gem Focus June 2020: Kunzite: a rosy spodumene with an American name

Posted on June 9, 2020 by The Gemworld Staff

Spodumene is almost exclusively a pegmatitic mineral of the pyroxene group that forms in monoclinic system with a chemical formula of LiAlSi2O6. Its hardness is 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs’ scale and displays perfect prismatic cleavage. Transparent and colored varieties show strong pleochroism. Strangely, the name spodumene means “ash-colored” in Greek referring to the dull and colorless examples when it was first named in the second half of the 19th century.

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