Definition of "spodumene" []

• A greenish to pinkish or lilac mineral, LiAlSi2O6, used as a source of lithium and in transparent varieties as a gemstone. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "These sources are less expensive to mine than from rock such as spodumene, petalite, and other lithium-bearing minerals."
• "I used shiny white glaze on one and kind of a stoneware glaze (spodumene) on the other."
• "It's been known for a long time that Afghanistan has a lot of spodumene, but it's much more expensive and difficult to process into a useable precursor for lithium battery materials than are the brines."