Diaspore, also known as diasporite, empholite, kayserite, or tanatarite, is an aluminium oxide hydroxide mineral, α-AlO(OH), crystallising in the orthorhombic system and isomorphous with goethite. It occurs sometimes as flattened crystals, but usually as lamellar or scaly masses, the flattened surface being a direction of perfect cleavage on which the luster is markedly pearly in character. It is colourless or greyish-white, yellowish, sometimes violet in colour, and varies from translucent to transparent. It may be readily distinguished from other colourless transparent minerals with a perfect cleavage and pearly luster like mica, talc, brucite, and gypsum by its greater hardness of 6.5 - 7. The specific gravity is 3.4. When heated before the blowpipe it decrepitates violently, breaking up into white pearly scales.
The mineral occurs as an alteration fabricated from corundum or emery and is located in granular limestone and different crystalline rocks. Well-advanced crystals are found in the emery deposits of the Urals and at Chester, Massachusetts, and in kaolin at Schemnitz in Hungary. If available in big quantity, it'd be of economic importance as a supply of aluminium.
Diaspore, along side gibbsite and boehmite, is a primary component of the aluminium ore bauxite.
It was first described in 1801 for an occurrence in Mramorsk Zavod, Sverdlovskaya Oblast, Middle Urals, Russia. The name, which was coined by René Just Haüy, is from the Greek for διασπείρειν, to scatter, in allusion to its decrepitation on heating.
Csarite, ottomanite, and zultanite are alternate names for gem-fine diaspore (additionally called Turkish diaspore) from the ?Lbir Mountains of southwest Turkey.
Diaspore as a mineral has been around due to the fact its discovery as a species in 1801, however it wasn't till the 1970's that this mineral changed into first faceted for gemstone use. From the 1970's thru 2005 occasional gemstones had been cut from Diaspore for collectors, however in 2006 this mineral started out being mined especially for gemstone use. Though Diaspore is determined in numerous localities at some point of the arena, the best supply of gemstone cloth is in a Bauxite deposit inside the Anatolian Mountains of imperative Turkey. Originally exploited for its financial importance for the extraction of aluminium, this residue is now totally mined for the production of this gemstone.
Diaspore is beautiful and exclusive in a gentle, subtle way. It is also one of the lesser acknowledged of the shade-alternate gem stones. Some of the finest examples of gem first-rate diaspore are discovered in Turkey's Anatolian Mountains, but it can be discovered in severa places around the globe. A rising big name in first-rate jewelry, it is smooth to fall in love with its sparklingly tremendous, tranquil earthy hues.
| Chemical Formula | AlO(OH) |
| Colour | Red, Green, Yellow, Pink |
| Hardness | 6.5 - 7 |
| Crystal System | Orthorhombic |
| Refractive Index | 1.70 - 1.75 |
| SG | 3.3 - 3.5 |
| Transparency | Transparent |
| Double Refraction | 0.048 |
| Luster | Vitreous |
| Cleavage | 1,2;2,1 |
| Mineral Class | Diaspore |
