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www.mineralgallery.co.za Minerals U-Z |
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Villiaumite |
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Name
Villiaumite
Chemistry
NaF, Sodium Fluoride
Uses
Rarely cut as gemstones and as mineral specimens.
Color-
Deep carmine red to reddish orange and lavender pink to pink
Hardness
2 - 2.5
Specific gravity
2.8 (average)
Crystal system:
Cubic, isometric; 4/m bar 3 2/m.
Accompanied by:
Calcite, Sodalite, eudialyte, nepheline, aegirine, pectolite, lomonosovite, microcline, fluorite, loparite
Fracture
Conchoidal
Luster
Transparent to translucent, vitreous to waxy in massive specimens
Cleavage
Perfect in three directions forming cubes
Streak
Pinkish white
Similar to:
Fluorite in form.
Villiaumite derived its name from the French explorer: Villiaume.
The mineral is a colored Halide mineral.
It has excellent crystal form, mainly cubes & octahedrons.
The minerals color ranges from the lavender pink, reddish orange to strong red. Its fluorescence is only a weak red color under UV light.
Villiaumite is not viable as a gemstone mineral, due to its softness and its undurablity.
Villiaumite is very rare and is mainly found in small miarolitic cavities in the nepheline syenites of Rouma, Islies de Los, Guinea, West Africa; in the alkali rocks in the Lovozero and Khibina Massifs, Kola Peninsula, USSR: in the Ilimaussaq intrusion, Greenland; in saline lake deposits in Magadi area, Kenya; at the Desourdy quarry, Mont St. Hilaire, Quebec, Canada; in the phonolite sill that forms Peck's Mesa, eastern Colfax County, New Mexico and Aris phonolite, Namibia.
Our crystals are from the Aris quarry close to Windhoek, Namibia.
