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Lepidolite Natural History
“ Teamwork - A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction!”
Larry Kersten, American Sociologist
CHEMICAL FORMULA: K(Li,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10(F,OH)2
Components: Potassium, Lithium, Alumina, Silica, Oxygen, Flouride
SYNONYMS: Lilalite, Lithium mica
CLASSIFICATION
Lepidolite is an uncommon mica, it is an ore of lithium and forms in granite masses that contain a basic potassium lithium aluminum fluoro-silicate; it is transparent to translucent, in colors of lavender, lilac, gray-white, pink, purple, rose-red, violet, and violet-gray, yellowish, white, translucent; colorless to pale pink in thin section. It has a luster of pearly to vitreous. Formed in granite pegmatites, derived by metasomatic replacement of biotite or muscovite; in some high-temperature quartz veins, greisens, and granites; it is one of the major sources of the rare alkali metals rubidium and caesium.
COMPONENTS
CHEMICAL FORMULA: K(Li,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10(F,OH)2
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Potassium (K
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10.07%
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K2O 12.13 %
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Lithium (Li)
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3.58 %
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Li2O 7.7%
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Aluminum (Al)
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6.95 %
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Al2O3 13.13 %
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Silicon (Si)
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28.93 %
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SiO2 61.89 %
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Hydrogen (H)
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0.26 %
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H2O 2.32 %
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Oxygen (O)
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45.32 %
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Fluorine (F)
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4.89 %
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F 4.89 %
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DISCOVERY
Originally named lilalite, from the Hindu ‘lila’ meaning play or game. Scientists eventually renamed the stone lepidolite, from the Greek lepidos ‘scale’ and lithos ‘stone’. The reference is to the scaly appearance of lithium flakes in the mineral.
CRYSTAL FORMS
Most often mined as small, scaly crystals in dense aggregates, and as micaceous masses and groupings, and in flaky, foliated, scaly forms, and tabular; it has large crystals, which are in stubby pseudohexagonal form, Lepidolite is much rarer than the other micas. It appears in micaceous rounded ball-shaped aggregates and in massive form with tiny glittery crystals. It has a physical tendency to flake off, for small pieces to peel off.
ASSOCIATED MINERALS: Amblygonite, beryl, cassiterite, columbite, elbaite, feldspar, micas, quartz, spodumene, topaz, and tourmaline.
OCCURANCES: Stewart Mine, Pala, California, USA, Tanco Mine, Bernic Lake, Manitoba, Canada, Brazil, and Ural Mountains, Russia.
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Los Angeles School of Homeopathy
