Home > Burmese Minerals – May 22 > MS1341 Sillimanite

Sillimanite - Sold


Sillimanite is an aluminum silicate mineral. The mineral name honors early American scientist Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), chemistry and mineralogy professor at Yale University (Bowen, 1824). Silliman founded the American Journal of Science in 1818. Sillimanite forms by high temperature metamorphism, and usually as white fibers.

The unusual marbles in Burma afford these large, transparent crystals, retrieved from river gravels. This is a facetable example. Gem cutters call this material "fibrolite". Doubly terminated, but a bit rounded from a combination of resorption into its parent rock and stream wear. This one has much better crystal form than most!