Lydiaite - A New Mineral from Lydia, Macedonia, Greece

In this communication the authors report the discovery of a new quartz-like mineral with extreme adamantine lustre occurring in Lydia, from the Macedonia region in Greece. The crystal was found in a placer deposit which is sourced from the mantle-derived Philippi quartz-monzodiorite. The mineral was first tested in a Raman device revealing two distinct peaks, one major at 475cm-l and one minor at 224cm-1. According to CrystalSleuth, the largest Raman database, the peaks do not correspond to any of the 5129 recorded minerals. XRF Spectroscopy showed that it is a Al-K-Ti modified quartz. The mineral is not listed among the 6100 minerals in the IMA database. Owing to its different spectral and chemical characteristics, it is proposed to be named “lydiaite” after the type locality.