Lepidolite

Lepidolite forms only where lithium is highly concentrated, mainly in late-stage granite pegmatites, greisens and tin-bearing veins, together with minerals such as elbaite tourmaline, spodumene, quartz and feldspars. Notable occurrences include Minas Gerais (Brazil), Manitoba (Canada), Honshu (Japan), Madagascar, the Ural Mountains (Russia), Sweden, Zimbabwe and California, Maine and New Mexico (USA). The original lepidolite came from the Rožná pegmatite in the Czech Republic.

A pink to purple mica with perfect one-direction cleavage and pearly luster is probably lepidolite, but the name is sometimes wrongly applied to lithian muscovite, which can have the same pink to purple color. Because lepidolite alone is too soft and cleavable for jewelry, beads and cabochons are usually lepidolite impregnated with quartz and sold simply as "lepidolite"; small lepidolite flakes also color some pink, red and purple aventurine quartz. Faceted lepidolite is very rare.

Lepidolite was named in 1792 by Martin Klaproth from the Greek lepidos ("scale") and lithos ("stone"), for the scaly look of the massive material. In the first half of the 1900s it was an important minor ore of lithium, sometimes with rubidium and cesium as byproducts.