Lavendulan

It's advisable to handle lavendulan carefully to avoid generating dust and wash hands thoroughly afterward. When cutting or polishing lavendulan, wear a dust mask to prevent inhaling heavy metal particles. Store lavendulan in a sealed container in a well-ventilated area, away from children and pets. For those involved in crystal healing, never put it in your mouth.

Lavendulan is a blue or greenish blue translucent mineral, with a vitreous to waxy luster, satiny in aggregates, and a light blue streak. It occurs as thin botryoidal crusts of minute radiating fibers or as thin rectangular, pseudo-orthorhombic plates, with cleavage in three directions, nearly perfect perpendicular to the b crystal axis, and distinct perpendicular to the a and c axes. Twinning is common. The mineral is brittle, with an uneven fracture. It is quite soft, with hardness 2.5, between gypsum and calcite, and relatively dense; its specific gravity is 3.84, close to that of topaz, and much denser than quartz (specific gravity 2.5 to 2.7). It is easily soluble in hydrochloric acid.

At the type locality, lavendulan occurs associated with erythrite and a cobalt molybdate originally called pateraite, but now discredited. At San Juan, Chile, it is associated with erythrite, cuprite, malachite and cobaltian wad. At the Cap Garonne Mine, Pradet, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, associated minerals are chalcophyllite, cyanotrichite, parnauite, mansfieldite, olivenite, tennantite, covellite, chalcanthite, antlerite, brochantite and geminite. It also occurs at Tsumeb, Namibia, associated with cuprian adamite, conichalcite, o’danielite, tsumcorite, fahleite, quartz, calcite and gypsum.