Entry № 209
Grandidierite
Magnesium Aluminium Borosilicate
One of the world's rarest gem-quality minerals.
Chakra
Throat · Heart
Element
Water · Air
Zodiac
Pisces · Libra

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
Next in the Atlas
Grape Agate
A cluster of tiny purple spheres, misnamed but unforgettable.




