Lepidolite
Lepidolite Products
Global Mining Sites
Lepidolite’s known locations are Africa, Brazil, Canada, Greenland, Madagascar, Russia and USA.
History
Lepidolite was first discovered in 1861 by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff. Originally called “lilalite” because of its lavender colour, it was later named “lepidolite” from the Greek “lepidos”, which means “scale”, because of its scaly appearance caused by flakes of lithium.
Lepidolite is mined as a source of the element lithium along with other rare earth elements such as cesium and rubidium. Lepidolite is an important source of lithium, which is the lightest metal in the world, and used in rechargeable batteries, mobile phones, toasters, and much more.
Appearance
Lepidolite is a type of Mica that often occurs around Pink Tourmaline crystals. It is rich in lithium, which brings about its spectrum of colours. It can form in many different colours such as purple, pink or white and rarely grey or yellow.
Lepidolite, like other micas, has a layered structure of lithium aluminium silicate sheets weakly bonded together by layers of potassium ions. The crystal habit includes tabular to prismatic crystals.
