Albite Value, Price, and Jewelry Information

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FELDSPAR: Albite, Sri Lanka (4.6), New Mexico (3.9). Photo © Joel E. Arem, PhD, FGA. Used with permission.

Albite, usually colorless but sometimes yellow, pink, gray or reddish. Translucent albite is sometime colored green by chrome jadeite. It is also a component of trapiche emeralds.

Albite Information

Data	Value
Name	Albite
Is a Variety of	Feldspar
Varieties	Peristerite
Colors	Colorless, white, yellow, pink, gray, reddish, greenish.
Hardness	6 -6.5
Fracture	Uneven to conchoidal
Cleavage	Perfect one direction; very good; imperfect
Formula	Ab₁₀₀, Ab₉₀
Crystallography	Triclinic. Twinned; platy crystals.
Refractive Index	1.527-1.544
Birefringence	0.008-0.011
Dispersion	0.012
Luminescence	Usually none; may be whitish in LW, lime green in X-rays (Kenya).
Absorption Spectrum	Not diagnostic.
Pleochroism	None.
Optics	α = 1.527; β = 1.531; γ = 1.538. Biaxial (+); 2V = 77°. See "Comments" for information on varieties.
Optic Sign	Biaxial +
Luminescence Present	Yes
Luminescence Type	Fluorescent, UV-Long, X-ray Colors
Luster	Vitreous to pearly.
Specific Gravity	2.57-2.69
Transparency	Transparent to opaque.

Comments

Translucent albite is sometimes found that is colored a rich green by inclusions of chrome-rich jadeite. Albite is sometimes intergrown with emerald, especially in the strange hexagonal skeletal crystals known as trapiche emeralds. Facetable albite from Madagascar has indices: a = 1.530-1.531; β= 1.532-1.533; γ= 1.539-1.540; birefringence 0.009-0.010; density 2.62. Small faceted gems are fairly rare, almost always from the tips of cleavelandite crystals. Albite gems are colorless in most cases and not exciting to look at. Albite moonstones are known from many localities (discussed below).

Name

Albite comes from the Latin albus, meaning white, because the mineral is usually white.

Occurrence

Albite usually forms at low temperatures; it is common in pegmatites, granite, and other igneous rocks, various metamorphic rocks, also marbles.

Essex County New York.
Ontario, Canada; Quebec, Canada; Madagascar; Austria.
Rutherford Mine, Amelia, Virginia: fine colorless albite, facetable, large; crystals are platy variety known as cleavelandite.
Upson County, Georgia: moonstone.
South Dakota: cleavelandite.
Brazil: cleavelandite.
Kenya: colorless crystals, some with blue or yellow tinge.
(Indices: 1.535/1.539/1.544; S.G. 2.63). Many other localities worldwide.