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Entry № 209

Grandidierite

Magnesium Aluminium Borosilicate

One of the world's rarest gem-quality minerals.

Chakra

Throat · Heart

Element

Water · Air

Zodiac

Pisces · Libra

Grandidierite

I. The Metaphysical Reading

How the stone has been held.

Grandidierite is worked with as a stone of rare articulation, held when someone is trying to name a feeling that few people around them share. Practitioners hold that its scarcity mirrors the interior experience it accompanies — precise, uncommon, and worth the trouble.

Chakra
Throat · Heart
Element
Water · Air
Zodiac
Pisces · Libra
Keynote
One of the world's rarest gem-quality minerals.

II. The Scientific Reading

What the lattice actually does.

Grandidierite is a magnesium aluminium borosilicate first described from Madagascar in 1902 and named after French explorer Alfred Grandidier. It forms as an accessory mineral in boron-rich aluminous rocks, typically in high-grade metamorphic or pegmatitic settings. It is strongly pleochroic — appearing blue, green and colourless along different crystallographic directions — and transparent gem-quality material is exceptionally rare, which is why it consistently appears near the top of gemmological rarity lists.

Formula
(Mg,Fe²⁺)Al₃(BO₃)(SiO₄)O₂
System
Orthorhombic
Hardness
7 – 7.5 (Mohs)
Provenance
Madagascar (Andrahomana — the principal source), Sri Lanka, Namibia

References & Sources

Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.

Mineral Profile

Fact Sheet

Chemical Formula
(Mg,Fe²⁺)Al₃(BO₃)(SiO₄)O₂
Crystal System
Orthorhombic
Mohs Hardness
7 – 7.5 (Mohs)
Density
2.98 – 3.00 g/cm³
Refractive Index
1.590 – 1.639
Provenance
Madagascar (Andrahomana — the principal source), Sri Lanka, Namibia
Color Origin
Translucent greenish-blue to teal, pleochroic

Related Crystals

Stones that share this lattice

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