Stichtite

Stichtite occurs in highly altered serpentinites and chromitites, usually with chromite, as irregular masses, veins and blebs in serpentine. The type locality is Stichtite Hill in the Dundas mineral field, Tasmania, Australia, where it is mixed with green serpentine. Other localities include Black Lake in Quebec, Canada, Transvaal in South Africa, and Algeria.

Stichtite is recognised by its pink to purple colour, very low hardness, waxy to greasy lustre and greasy feel, and its usual association with green serpentine; it is not facetable and is cut as cabochons or carved. Purple stichtite mixed with green serpentine is a serpentinite rock that has been traded as "Atlantisite", which Mindat calls an unnecessary trade name; it is a rock, not a separate mineral. Stichtite somewhat resembles canasite, a pink granular material from the former USSR.

Stichtite was first published in 1910 (W. F. Petterd, Catalogue of the Minerals of Tasmania) and is named after Robert Carl Sticht (1856–1922), born in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, who was general manager of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in Queenstown, Tasmania.

The Japanese retailer Pascle says stichtite is traditionally said to be a stone of peace that helps its wearer build good relationships with family and friends. This is a retailer belief, not a tested property.