I have a quick question about people's experiences with yellow spodumene. Does it tend to be photostable, and if not how unstable does it tend to be? I've looked around online, but information seems to be focused on green and pink/purple material. I have read that the blues/aquas/indigos are never photostable (to my very deep regret; I have a few indigo crystals, and the color is enchanting to say the least), as well as radiation-induced green which always fades in sunlight, quite rapidly if artificially induced and possibly slower in the natural ones. As I understand it many of the purples or pinks fade as well to varying degrees, though some are stable.
But I haven't come across much information about the yellow material (sometimes called "yellow hiddenite" [*shudder*] or triphane). I know it isn't as sensitive to light as the greens--I've had a couple of bicolor yellow-green crystals (both no doubt irradiated), and while the green faded rapidly in direct sunlight, and merely very quickly in very indirect sunlight (one to colorless, the other to pale pink), the yellow seemed to remain just fine. But I haven't done any serious testing, and I was wondering if others had experience with this stuff. Thanks!
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:48 am Posts: 416 Location: KY
Have you checked out gemdat dot org yet? This is the new beta site spin off from mindat. It may not give you an answer top this specific question but it sure has a lot of info (and many pretty pictures!)
I have some that was dug personally out of the oceanview mine in pala ,ca (i know the blasting crew) and in a year it went from a pale lemony yellow to almost clear while sitting in a draw of my facetting station.But that's anecdotal...my only experience with the stuff
@drsue: thanks for the link. It doesn't have much info on yellow spodumene, but still very interesting and useful stuff. @stairman: thanks for the info. Anecdote is just fine when it comes to this, and much appreciated.
As a sidebar, I was thinking some more on the topic. IIRC, both Hiddenite and the deposit of Cr/V spodumene in Afhanistan produced yellow as well as green stones. Perhaps these stones might behave differently than non-Cr-bearing stones.
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