Lepidolite pseudmorph after Tourmaline (rare)

Item Description

There are many Tourmaline localities in Brazil where Lepidolite is found, and the two minerals are often seen associated together, but THIS piece is rarely seen pseudomorph of beautiful, sparkling/pearly, gentle purplish colored Lepidolite that has completely pseudomorphed a preexisting prismatic Tourmaline crystal. You can see that all of the original Tourmaline is completely replaced by Lepidolite, preserving the original trigonal shape, but now in the form of this beautiful Mica mineral. It should be noted that Lepidolite for many years was a valid species, but it now exists in a state of "limbo" where it is currently being re-examined / re-defined, and the entry for the material on mindat.org refers to it as, "A Li-rich mica in, or close to, the so-called Polylithionite-Trilithionite series". With that said, virtually everyone still refers to it as Lepidolite, and you can still search for specimens with that name on mindat, so it's safe to continue using the term until it is properly re-categorized. I've only seen a handful of piece of this material over the years, and this one might be the best example, as it's essentially a complete "floater" with no real point of attachment, nor any real damage that I can find. From the collection of Colorado mineral dealer and collector, Brian Kosnar.