Blue Apatite

An Introduction to Blue Apatite

Blue Apatite is the most common and popular color of this calcium phosphate mineral. The yellow and green varieties are also used as gems, but it occurs in many colors including white, brown, purple, gray, and pink. This lead German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner to name this mineral after the Greek work “apatein” meaning “to deceive” because it could be easily confused for so many other colorful stones.

Apatite is found in Russia, Canada, India, the United States, and across other parts of the word. Because it is a softer stone (5 on the Mohs hardness scale) Apatite is less often cut into faceted gems. More often it is tumbled and polished into palm stones, smaller tumbles, and beads.

Some forms of Apatite display the brilliant cat’s eye, or chatoyancy, effect, also found in Tiger Eye. The fibrous structure of a material creates a sheen across the surface that appears and disappears at various angles. Inclusions of rare earth minerals within Apatite create another special effect. Apatite, like Fluorite, often glows (fluoresces) under ultra violet light.