Description

Detailed Description

This is a beautiful, well-defined crystal. The termination is clean, and the broad prism faces are striated. One prism face (left side, first photo) is particularly lustrous and glassy near the top. In excellent condition, no damage. The imperfections (lower left at the side and upper right, back corner) have crystallization texture, having occurred at a late stage in the crystal’s development. The hues in this crystal are very light and subtle – pale greenish for the top half, and light lilac in the lower half.

A gorgeous, sharp spodumene.

Important Note About Colour Stability: The light green colour in these spodumene crystals fades to colourless upon exposure to daylight. If exposed in direct sun, this will happen relatively quickly. If exposed to indirect daylight indoors, such as in a display cabinet, the green will fade over a longer period of time. If you are planning to keep this specimen fully protected from daylight, the green may be preserved, although it’s anyone’s guess – over a period of months, I have seen no degradation to specimens kept in drawers (with no daylight exposure). If you are planning to have it out in a cabinet, it should be considered a colour-zoned kunzite, from pink to colourless. In general, like many other minerals, the colour in all spodumene is best preserved if it is protected from light.

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About these Spodumene Crystals

These spodumene crystals are from a 2017 pocket that produced colour-zoned (lilac/pink – pale green – colourless) crystals, along with some specimens that were purely lilac/pink and some that had no such hues at all. Although spodumene crystals are often etched or poorly defined, this pocket included sharp well-formed crystals and relatively low incidence of etching/dissolution features.