Brazilianite is a mineral with a hardness of 6 out of 10 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness [?]. These Monoclinicly structured gems are made of aluminum sodium hydrosulphate, their full chemical compound being Al3Na(PO4)2(OH)4.

Brazilianite is a soft and brittle mineral that in general does work very well as a gemstone. It's soft at 5.5 Mohs, and so it will quickly either shear apart, or crumble at the edges.

As one might guess Brazilianite was first discovered in Brazil. It tends to be a yellow or light yellowish green mineral.

This mineral has also been found in New Hampshire, United States. The mineral is so rare it is almost always mistaken as a Chrysoberyl.

All in all a nice piece for a collector, but not so well suited for trinkets and jewelry.

The specific gravity [?] for Brazilianite is 2.99, it's refractive index [?] is 1.60-1.62, and it's double refraction [?] is 0.021.

History

Originally found in Brazil in 1944. First thought to be Chrysoberyl.

Industrial Usages

Due to it's rarity we think the usage of this mineral to be very limited.

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Tags

brazilunited statesbrazilianitealuminumsodiumhydrosulphateyellowgreensoftrarechrysoberyl

Terms

Double Refraction or dr is the ability of a mineral to separate a refracted ray of light into 2 rays. If held over an image or text it will display the object 2x its original size.

Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness is the standard used to categorize a mineral's ability to resist scratching. It gets its name from Friedrich Mohs, the German geologist who first created the scale.

RI or Refractive Index defines light's ability to move through the mineral or in a general sense, any material.

SG or Specific Gravity is the ratio of the weight of any substance to that of pure water at temperature of 3.98°C(39.2°F) and standard atmospheric pressure. This is important to note when actively seeking these minerals in the wild. Minerals with a higher SG will settle below material with a lower sg over time.