rob Geological Properties Of Crystals March 12, 2022

Geological Properties Of Lithium Quartz

Geology/History

Geological Properties Of Lithium Quartz, This type of Quartz has Lithium inclusions, the Lithium show within the Quartz as beautiful purple to pinkish or earthy brown wisps of color often occurring in phantom formations. Lithium is one of the three elements created during the Big Bang. It is the lightest of all metals & least dense solid element. Lithium carbonate has made revolutionary changes in the treating of mental health in the 1940’s electro-convulsive therapy & lobotomy where considered standard practice. With the efforts of Australian doctor John Cade of the Victorian Department of Mental Hygiene the sedative & balancing affects of Lithium on the human body where discovered & brought into modern medicine. Not long after his findings the use of Lithium as a mental stability drug became a world wide treatment helping thousands.

Quartz in general is a significant component of many igneous, metamorphic & sedimentary rocks. It is one of the most common minerals found on the Earth’s surface & in the Earth’s continental crust. However Lithium Quartz is not overly common & can be difficult to find.

Historically Quartz has been revered by many ancient cultures. The Romans & Greeks used it as a powerful talisman, the Egyptians believed it gave the wearer long life. Indigenous peoples of Australia & Americas used it to induce visions & for shamanic rituals. All cultures have crafted jewellery from various Quartz varieties for thousands of years. One of the oldest known examples discovered in the Mesopotamian region (current day Iraq), was Rose Quartz beads dating back to approximately 7000BC.

Quartz has unique physical properties which have made it a vital component of human industrial evolution starting with flint arrow heads all the way to sophisticated electronic equipment. It is heat resistant & piezoelectric, therefore it accumulates an electric charge when mechanical stress is applied. It oscillates at a perfect, steady vibration a characteristic vital in the development of time pieces & clocks, it is still used today in quality time keeping instruments.

Description

Lithium is an element valuable for the production of glass, aluminum products, and batteries. It is mined from ores of petalite (LiAl(Si2O₅)₂, lepidolite K(Li,Al)₃(Al,Si,Rb)₄O₁₀(F,OH)₂, spodumene LiAl(SiO₃)₂and also subsurface brines. Australia and Chile are the world’s largest producers of lithium.

Relation to Mining

Lithium was first discovered in the mineral petalite. Lepidolite and spodumene are other common minerals which contain lithium. Commercial quantities of these three minerals are in a special igneous rock deposit that geologists call pegmatite. In pegmatites, magma cools so slowly that crystals have time to grow very large. Because lepidolite is a type of mica, its crystals grow into long thin sheets.

Mining for Lithium:

Lithium is often recovered from brine, or water with a high concentration of lithium carbonate. Subsurface brines trapped in the Earth’s crust are a major source material for lithium carbonate. These sources are less expensive to mine than from rock such as spodumene, petalite, and other lithium-bearing minerals.

Brine production of lithium begins by first pumping the brine into evaporative ponds. Over 12 to 18 months, concentration of the brine increases to 6,000 ppm Li through solar evaporation. When the lithium chloride reaches optimum concentration, the liquid is pumped to a recovery plant and treated with soda ash, precipitating lithium carbonate, which is then filtrated, dried, and shipped.

Uses

Lithium compounds are used in ceramics and glass, in primary aluminum production, in the manufacture of lubricants and greases, rocket propellants, vitamin A synthesis, silver solders, underwater buoyancy devices, and increasingly in batteries.

Lithium batteries are proving to be an effective and affordable alternative to traditional batteries, and also in new battery applications. More than 50% of lithium mined is used in batteries. This use has recently increased rapidly spurring an increase in lithium mining to provide the lithium for batteries.

Lithium is mixed with other light metals such as aluminum and magnesium to form strong, light-weight alloys (an alloy is a mixture of metals).

Some lithium, in the form of lithium carbonate or lithium citrate, is used as medicine to treat gout (an inflammation of joints) and to treat serious mental illness.

Group: Quartz (Silicate-Tectosilicate)
Crystal System: Trigonal
Composition: SiO2 with Lithium inclusions
Form/Habit: Prismatic
Hardness: 7
Cleavage: None
Fracture: Conchoidal
Luster: Vitreous
Streak: White
Specific Gravity: 2.65
Transparency: Transparent, translucent, opaque
R.I: 1.544 to 1.553
Color: Colorless, Brown, Pink, Purplish, Reddish
Birefringence: 0.009
Pleochroism: Weakly Dichroic
Fluorescence: None