Sugilite is a popular purple color shift mineral.
Translucency is the first priority in grading Sugilite, with pure “gel” (without cracks) being the most valuable. Secondly, Sugilite grows with a variety of other minerals, some of which add value, and some of which take away. Manganese is almost always present with Sugilite rough. The more black manganese that is present, the less valuable the stone. The main deposit of commercial quantity of Sugilite has always been a few of the larger Manganese mines in the Kalahari, South Africa, Wessels, and N’chwaning. Being larger scale manganese ore mines, Sugilite is a byproduct, and often not the focal point of these operations.
Sugilite was named after Ken-ichi Sugi, a Japanese geologist who first discovered the mineral in 1944, in Shikoku, Japan.
Sugilite is a cyclosilicate mineral, with a hardness of 6 to 6.5. Its color ranges from pale lilac to deep purple. Sugilite crystallizes in the hexagonal system with prismatic crystals. A deep Magenta-purple and translucent Sugilite is considered the most pristine, and is referred to as ‘Gel’ or ‘Gem Sugilite’.
Other names for Sugilite include Wesselite, Cybelene, Lavulite, and Royal Azel.
