Mineralogical Characteristics of“Yueweizi”(Purple Larderite)from Shoushan County, Fujian Province

This paper investigates the mineralogical characteristics of"Yueweizi"(purple larderite)from Shoushan County, Fujian Province by using optical microscope, X-ray power diffraction(XRD), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope(with energy dispersive spectrometer, EDS).The results show that"Yueweizi"shows microcrystalline structure, that its main mineral composition is dickite, and that there is a lot of purple-red hematite in the matrix.The purple colouration of"Yueweizi"is due to hematite.Because of the different amount of hematite, the purple colours have various saturations, and hematite also influences the transparency of the stone.The scanning electron microscope results show that the dickite particles appear as pseudohexagonal platy, have clear edges and almost the same thickness, and overlap with each other.The EDS test results show that the spherical particles are silicon dioxide.