Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0 [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Wavellite is a very attractive mineral that is well known to collectors. It is not generally regarded as cabochon material, but its radial aggregate crystal clusters can be cut into extremely interesting stones. These gems are very difficult to cut because of splintering of the radiating crystal clusters. The individual crystals of wavellite in the clusters are very small, and a faceted gem would be a tremendous rarity.
Wavellite Value
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Wavellite Information
| Data | Value |
| Name | Wavellite |
| Crystallography | Orthorhombic. Crystals very tiny; usually as radial aggregates of acicular crystals; often spherical crystal clusters; crusts; stalactitic. |
| Colors | White, greenish white, green, yellowish green, yellow, yellow—brown, brown to brownish black. Very rarely colorless, bluish. |
| Luster | Vitreous: also resinous to pearly. |
| Hardness | 3.5-4. |
| Density | 2.36. |
| Birefringence | 0.025. |
| Cleavage | Perfect 1 direction. Fracture subconchoidal to uneven. Brittle. |
| Stone Sizes | Cabochons up to several inches in length can be cut from Arkansas material. No faceted gems have yet been reported. |
| Luminescence | Occasionally bluish in LW (various localities). |
| Spectral | Not diagnostic. |
| Formula | Al3(OH)3(PO4)2 · 5H2O. |
Optics: a= 1.520-1.535;β= 1.526-1.543; γ=1.545-1.561.
Biaxial (+), 2V= 71°.
Occurrence: A secondary mineral in hydrothermal veins; also in aluminous and phosphatic rocks.
Chester County, Pennsylvania; Alabama; Florida; Colorado; California.
Bolivia; England; Ireland; France; Portugal; Germany; Czechoslovakia; Bulgaria: Rumania; Tasmania.
Hot Springs, Arkansas: in fine, spherical and radial groups of acicular crystals.
Comments: Wavellite is a very attractive mineral that is well known to collectors. It is not generally regarded as cabochon material, but its radial aggregate crystal clusters can be cut into extremely interesting stones. These gems are very difficult to cut because of splintering of the radiating crystal clusters. The individual crystals of wavellite in the clusters are very small, and a faceted gem would be a tremendous rarity.
Name: After William Wavell, a physician in England, who discovered the mineral.
