Leifite – Saint-Hilaire

Thumbnails

Leifite crystals - click for larger pic
Leifite sprays
Photo by Violet Anderson
© Royal Ontario Museum

Leifite crystals - click for larger pic
Leifite crystals
© Doug Merson

Na(Si,Al,Be)(O,OH,F)₁₄

Mont Saint-Hilaire has provided the world’s finest and largest crystals of leifite since the beginning of its quarrying operations.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

Color is colorless to pure white, with pale violet surfaces on larger
aggregates.
Luster is vitreous to silky.
Diaphaneity is transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is hexagonal; 1.
Crystal Habits include fibrous or acicular, spherical aggregates,
simple hexagonal prisms terminated by pinacoid.
Cleavage {100} is distinct.
Fracture uneven to splintery.
Hardness is 6
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.6g/cm
Streak is white.
Associated Minerals include aegirine, albite, ancylite, catapleiite,
fluorite, genthelvite, mangan-neptunite, microcline, monteregianite,
natrolite, polylithionite and rhodochrosite.
Distinguishing Features: Prismatic crystal habit.
Origin: Named in 1915 for the tenth-century Norse mariner and
explorer Leif Ericson.

CLASSIFICATION:

Dana System
# 78.7.10.1

Strunz Classification
# VIII/J.10-10

REFERENCES:
MinRec 21:316-317 (1990), AmMin 57:1006 (1971), Dana 8:1717 (1997)

DISTRIBUTION AND RARITY AT MONT SAINT-HILAIRE:

MSH
¤¤¤

Legend