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Spodumene is a
pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...
mineral consisting of lithium aluminium inosilicate, Li Al( Si O3)2, and is a source of lithium. It occurs as colorless to yellowish, purplish, or lilac kunzite (see below), yellowish-green or emerald-green
hiddenite Hiddenite is a pale-to-emerald green variety of spodumene that is sometimes used as a gemstone. The first specimens of the hiddenite variety of spodumene were recovered about 1879 near the tiny settlement of White Plains, west of Stony Point, A ...
, prismatic crystals, often of great size. Single crystals of in size are reported from the Black Hills of South Dakota, United States. The naturally-occurring low-temperature form α-spodumene is in the monoclinic system , and the high-temperature β-spodumene crystallizes in the tetragonal system. α-spodumene converts to β-spodumene at temperatures above 900 °C. Crystals are typically heavily striated parallel to the principal axis. Crystal faces are often etched and pitted with triangular markings.


Discovery and occurrence

Spodumene was first described in 1800 for an occurrence in the type locality in Utö, Södermanland,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. It was discovered by Brazilian naturalist
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. *Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean ...
. The name is derived from the Greek ''spodumenos'' (σποδούμενος), meaning "burnt to ashes", owing to the opaque ash-grey appearance of material refined for use in industry. Spodumene occurs in lithium-rich granite
pegmatite A pegmatite is an igneous rock showing a very coarse texture, with large interlocking crystals usually greater in size than and sometimes greater than . Most pegmatites are composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica, having a similar silicic com ...
s and aplites. Associated minerals include: quartz, albite, petalite,
eucryptite Eucryptite is a lithium bearing aluminium silicate minerals, silicate mineral with formula LiAlSiO4. It crystallizes in the Trigonal crystal system, trigonal - rhombohedral crystal system. It typically occurs as granular to massive in form and may ...
, lepidolite and beryl. Transparent material has long been used as a
gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
with varieties kunzite and hiddenite noted for their strong pleochroism. Source localities include Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, Brazil, Madagascar (see mining), Pakistan,
Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
in Canada, and North Carolina and California in the U.S. Since 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo (
DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
) has been known to have the largest lithium spodumene hard rock deposit in the world, with
mining operations Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
occurring in the central
DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
territory of Manono, Tanganyika Province. The total resource of the deposit located in Manono has the potential to be in the magnitude of 1.5 billion tons of high-grade low-impurities lithium spodumene hard-rock. The two largest pegmatites (known as the Carriere de l'Este Pegmatite and the Roche Dure Pegmatite) are each of similar size or larger than the Greenbushes Pegmatite in Western Australia. By 2023, the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to be a significant supplier of lithium to the world by means of its high-grade and low-impurity spodumene. As of 2021, the
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n company AVZ Minerals is developing the Manono Lithium and Tin project and has a resource size of 400 million tonnes of high grade low impurities at 1.65% lithium oxide ( Li2 O) spodumene hard-rock based on studies and drilling of Roche Dure, one of several pegmatites in the deposit.


Economic importance

Spodumene is an important source of lithium, for use in ceramics, mobile phone and automotive
batteries Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
, medicine,
Pyroceram Pyroceram is the original glass-ceramic material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in the 1950s. Pyroceram is an opaque, white, glass material, commonly used in kitchenware, glass stove tops, wood stove doors, etc.. It has high heat toleran ...
and as a fluxing agent. As of 2019, around half of lithium is extracted from mineral ores, which mainly consist of spodumene. Lithium is extracted from spodumene by fusing in
acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
after roasting to convert it to the more reactive β-spodumene. The advantage of spodumene as a lithium source compared to brine sources is the higher lithium concentration, at the expense of a higher extraction cost. In 2016, the price was forecast to be $500–600/ton for years to come. However, price spiked above $800 in January 2018, and production increased more than consumption, reducing the price to $400 in September 2020. World production of lithium via spodumene was around 80,000 metric tonnes per annum in 2018, primarily from the Greenbushes pegmatite of Western Australia and from some
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and Chilean sources. The
Talison Minerals Talison Minerals Pty Ltd was a mining company based in Australia. It was split into Talison Lithium (as of 2020 a 51:49 jv between Tianqi Lithium and Albemarle Corporation) and Talison Tantalum, now known as Global Advanced Metals, in 2009. The t ...
mine in
Greenbushes, Western Australia Greenbushes is a timber and mining town located in the South West region of Western Australia. The 2021 population was 365. History Greenbushes was founded as a mining town in 1888 following a surveyor's discovery of tin in 1886. Greenbushes w ...
(involving
Tianqi Lithium Tianqi Lithium Corp (; previously Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries, Inc.) is a Chinese mining and manufacturing company based in Sichuan. As of 2018, the company controls more 46% of the production of lithium worldwide. Production World product ...
,
Albemarle Corporation Albemarle Corporation is a specialty chemicals manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It operates 3 divisions: lithium (41.0% of 2021 revenues), bromine specialties (33.9% of 2021 revenues) and catalysts (22.9% of 2021 revenu ...
and
Global Advanced Metals Talison Minerals Pty Ltd was a mining company based in Australia. It was split into Talison Lithium (as of 2020 a 51:49 jv between Tianqi Lithium and Albemarle Corporation) and Talison Tantalum, now known as Global Advanced Metals, in 2009. The ...
), is reported to be the world's 2nd largest and to have the highest grade of ore at 2.4% Li2O (2012 figures). In 2020, Australia expanded spodumene mining to become the leading lithium producing country in the world. Extraction of lithium from spodumene is challenging due to the tight binding of lithium in the crystal structure. Processing methods rely on roasting at high temperature with various reagents. At temperatures in excess of , the spodumene is converted from the alpha structure to a more open beta structure from which the lithium is more easily extracted by the reagents. Suitable extraction reagents include alkali metal sulfates, such as
sodium sulfate Sodium sulfate (also known as sodium sulphate or sulfate of soda) is the inorganic compound with formula Na2SO4 as well as several related hydrates. All forms are white solids that are highly soluble in water. With an annual production of 6 milli ...
;
sodium carbonate Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...
; chlorine; or
hydrofluoric acid Hydrofluoric acid is a Solution (chemistry), solution of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in water. Solutions of HF are colourless, acidic and highly Corrosive substance, corrosive. It is used to make most fluorine-containing compounds; examples include th ...
. An important economic concentrate of spodumene, known as spodumene concentrate 6 or SC6, is a high-purity lithium ore with approximately 6 percent lithium content being produced as a raw material for the subsequent production of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.


Gemstone varieties


Hiddenite

Hiddenite Hiddenite is a pale-to-emerald green variety of spodumene that is sometimes used as a gemstone. The first specimens of the hiddenite variety of spodumene were recovered about 1879 near the tiny settlement of White Plains, west of Stony Point, A ...
is a pale, emerald-green gem variety first reported from
Alexander County, North Carolina Alexander County is a county established in the U.S. state of North Carolina in 1847. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,444. Its county seat is Taylorsville. Alexander County is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton, NC Metropol ...
, U.S. It was named in honor of William Earl Hidden (16 February 1853 - 12 June 1918), mining engineer, mineral collector, and mineral dealer. This emerald-green variety of spodumene is colored by chromium, just as for emeralds. Not all green spodumene is colored with chromium, which tend to have a lighter color, and therefore are not true hiddenite.


Kunzite

Kunzite is a purple-colored
gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
, a variety of spodumene, with the color coming from minor to trace amounts of manganese. Exposure to sunlight can fade its color. Kunzite was discovered in 1902, and was named after George Frederick Kunz, Tiffany & Co's chief jeweler at the time, and a noted mineralogist. It has been found in Brazil, the U.S., Canada,
CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...
, Mexico,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, Western Australia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Spodumene.jpg, An almost colorless kunzite crystal (upper left), a cut pale pink kunzite (upper right) and a greenish hiddenite crystal (below) (unknown scale) Kunzite Nouristan.jpg, Kunzite, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan Spodumene var. hiddenite - Araçuaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil.jpg, Hiddenite from Araçuaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil


Triphane

Triphane is the name used for yellowish varieties of spodumene.


See also

* List of minerals


Notes


References

* Kunz, George Frederick (1892). ''Gems and Precious Stones of North America''. New York: The Scientific Publishing Company. * Palache, C., Davidson, S. C., and Goranson, E. A. (1930). "The Hiddenite deposit in Alexander County, N. Carolina". ''American Mineralogist'' Vol. 15 No. 8 p. 280 * Webster, R. (2000). ''Gems: Their Sources, Descriptions and Identification'' (5th ed.), pp. 186–190. Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann.
The key players in Quebec lithium
, "Daily News", ''The Northern Miner'', 11 August 2010.


External links

* {{Lithium compounds Aluminium minerals Gemstones Inosilicates Lithium minerals Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 15 Pyroxene group