Petalite

A lithium aluminum silicate from pegmatites, usually white or colorless.

Petalite specimen — Photo: Eurico Zimbres, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify petalite

Colorless to white with a pearly cleavage face.
Light in weight.
Hardness about 6.

Often confused with

Albite
Albite shows fine striations on its cleavage faces.
Compare side by side
Quartz
Quartz has no cleavage.
Compare side by side

Where it's found

Bikita, Zimbabwe
Karibib, Namibia
Utö, Sweden
Minas Gerais, Brazil

Uses

Lithium source and glass-ceramic cookware.

Rock tumbling

Can be tumbled with care.

Did you know?

The element lithium was discovered in 1817 by analyzing petalite from Utö, Sweden.

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