Home > Type Localities I – June 9 > MS1093 Junitoite

Junitoite - Sold


Junitoite is a rare calcium zinc silicate described by Williams (1976). The mineral name honors Jun Ito (1926-1978), chemist at Harvard who had previously synthesized the compound. Junitoite here forms scattered white pearly plates and cleavages to 4 mm across. In some places on this specimen, junitoite shows an atypical purple color, which is likely a result of manganese substitution for calcium in the crystal structure. This specimen is quite rich, and the junitoite is distinguished by its pearly reflections from a bed of hydroxyapophyllite-(K) microcrystals. There is minor blue kinoite also present. Mineralogists at the University of Arizona recently refined the crystal structure of junitoite (Yang et al. 2012).