Published September 2024 • Read Time: 7 minutes
Ajoite is a rare blue-green mineral found in a few select copper deposits. Most of the Ajoite on the market comes from Arizona, USA and from Limpopo, South Africa. Ajoite was discovered during WWII when an American scientist was looking for minerals in Ajo, Arizona that could be used to help the Allies win the war. Ajoite has a wonderfully uplifting energy that is both joyful and peaceful. It strongly encourages self-love and self-care. Its nurturing energy also helps us to be less socially-anxious so we can enjoy better connections with friends and acquaintances.
Ajoite Meaning
Spiritual Healing Properties
Ajoite has an exceptionally sweet and nurturing vibration that gently leads us towards enlightenment. Its energy encircles us like a big hug or a soft blanket, bringing comfort and tranquility. Ajoite helps us to relax our mind and release any tension from our body, so that we can safely look beyond ourselves and take in a larger view. Ajoite connects us with Mother Earth and reminds us that we are all her children. It teaches us that all other beings are our own brothers and sisters, and to love and care for them like cherished family. Ajoite joyfully invites us to bring more beauty and goodness into the world through our own words and actions. It is a wonderful stone for spiritual teachers and healers who have the responsibility of accurately communicating messages to the rest of humanity. It helps us to understand spiritual universalities and to bring people together through common sense, compassion, and joyful goodwill.
| Vibrations | Ajoite |
|---|---|
| Chakra | Heart, Throat, Third Eye, Crown |
| Element | Wind |
| Numerology | 6 |
| Zodiac | Virgo |
Emotional Healing Properties
Ajoite has a happy energy that inspires deep inner peace. It helps us to recognize and accept our own beauty and goodness. Ajoite pulls us back when we try to find reasons to unfairly and harshly judge ourselves. It firmly reminds us that we are special and that we are loveable just the way we are. It also tells us that everyone else is special and unique too, so there are many reasons to love and admire one another. Ajoite reduces feelings of hostility, jealousy, and shame. It is highly recommended for anyone with social anxiety who tends to get trapped in fear rather than connecting to others the way we want to. Ajoite is a fantastic stone for helping us find kindred spirits and friends of the heart. It teaches us to speak and listen from the heart, so that everyone in the conversation feels seen and uplifted. Ajoite helps us to stay centered in the present moment, rather than getting lost in the past or future. If we tend to think, “I’ll be happy when…” it reminds us that the future is for hopes, but the present is for happiness.
Mental Healing Properties
Ajoite helps us to draw out any poison lurking in our subconscious. Ajoite helps us feel safe enough to shine a light into the darkest parts of our mind where self-limiting beliefs abide. Ajoite is a particularly good for anyone who has experienced narcissistic abuse. It helps us to unravel the dangerous beliefs that put one person in the center of the universe, while the rest of us circle around them. Ajoite reminds us that there is no center and that we are all at the center simultaneously. This means that our needs, desires, and boundaries are important, and so are other people’s. We have to find a healthy balance, and that balance may not be comfortable or acceptable to others caught up in the narcissistic dance. Ajoite helps us to extract ourselves from the unhealthy cycles and to dance to a new beat, one that pulses with freedom, compassion, and above all love.
Physical Healing Properties
Ajoite helps us explore questions about what physical wellbeing looks like for us during this time and season of our lives. It encourages us to pay attention to our habits and how they are impacting our physical health and mental wellbeing. It can be a lot to consider! If we get overwhelmed, Ajoite helps us to keep it simple. It reminds us that we don’t need to be perfect or find some mysterious and miraculous solutions. Most of health and wellbeing is amusingly basic, but often neglected. Ajoite helps us to nurture and nourish ourselves. It invites us to cherish ourselves with sensitive and tenderness, because that is the kind of care that we absolutely deserve.
Ajoite Mineralogy
Where does Ajoite come from?
Ajoite is mainly found in the southern tip of Africa in the countries of Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, as well as in the United States.
Mining and Treatments
Ajoite is a rare gem that is sometimes found in copper-rich areas and is usually mined in an open-pit.
All Ajoites are natural, enhanced only by tumbling and polishing.
Ajoite
Mineral Family
Ajoite is a rare phyllosilicate mineral that grows in copper deposits. Silicates are minerals which contain the elements Silicon (a light gray shiny metal) and Oxygen (a colorless gas). Together, these two elements form a tetrahedron – a shape similar to a pyramid – with a Silicon atom in the center and Oxygen atoms at each of the four corners. These tetrahedra connect with other chemical structures, in six different ways, to form various minerals and rocks. There are six main groups of Silicate minerals, and these main groups are further subdivided into secondary subdivisions, such as Quartz and Feldspar. Ajoite belongs to the phyllosilicate group, whose tetrahedra connect at three corners to form hexagonal rings.
Ajoite’s energy works well with its family – other phyllosilicate minerals. Try it in combination with Apophyllite, Cavansite, Chlorite, Chrysocolla, Fuchsite, Kammererite, Lepidolite, Muscovite, Petalite, Prehnite, Seraphinite, and Serpentine
Ajoite Formation and Crystal Associates
Ajoite is a rare secondary silicate mineral found in the oxidization zones of copper deposits. When copper-rich fluids are introduced to a geological area and interact with pre-existing silica-rich rocks, the original rocks are weathered and this allows new minerals to form. Ajoite is typically found in Quartz veins, and can be embedded within the Quartz or growing on top. It is often associated with other copper-derived minerals and the combination can be very colorful and striking.
Ajoite’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment. Try it in combination Azurite, Clear Quartz, Chrysocolla, Copper, Malachite, and Shattuckite.
| Mineralogy | Ajoite |
|---|---|
| Chemical Formula | (Na,K)CuAlSi9O24(OH)63H2O |
| Cleavage | Perfect |
| Color | Blue-green |
| Crystal System | Triclinic |
| Form/Habit | Bladed prismatic, Massive |
| Fracture | Uneven |
| Hardness – Mohs Scale | 3.5 |
| Luminescence | None |
| Luster | Vitreous |
| Mineral Family | Phyllosilicate |
| Specific Gravity | 2.96 |
| Streak | Greenish-white |
| Transparency | Translucent to opaque |
History of Ajoite
Ajoite was first observed from the New Cornelia Mine in Ajo, Arizona in 1941. The mine is an open-pit copper mine that was worked throughout the 20th century, but closed in the 1983 because of labor disputes. Some of the copper-derived minerals are still being mined and sold to gem enthusiasts. The original Ajoite was collected by Harry Berman (1902-1944) an American mineralogist and the Curator of the Harvard Mineralogical Museum. He examined a dark blue Shattuckite from the mine and noticed a unique blue-green mineral growing alongside it. He suspected that he had found a new mineral and planned to investigate it further after World War II was over. Berman was highly patriotic and offered his professional skills to the Allied war effort. He found domestic depots of high grade Clear Calcite and Fluorite for optical instruments and helped improve quartz crystal oscillators that were used in a variety of technologies. He was hired by the British government to consult on similar crystallography projects, but Berman died when the plane he was traveling in crashed in Scotland.
In 1958, the unknown blue-green mineral was studied by one of Berman’s colleagues, W.T. Schaller (1882-1967), a mineralogist who worked for the US Geological Survey. Schaller formally declared that it was a new mineral species and named it Ajoite after the city of Ajo. Schaller described Ajoite as being monoclinic, meaning that the crystal’s height, length, and width are all unequal lengths. In 1981, another Ajoite from New Cornelia Mine was more closely examined by George Chao (1930-2022) a mineralogy professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Chao showed that Ajoite is actually triclinic, meaning that not only are the vectors unequal, so are the angles between the vectors. Triclinic minerals are the least symmetrical of all crystals. Other famous triclinic minerals include Amazonite, Rhodonite and Turquoise.
Ajoite has been observed in a few locations, but the two main deposits are in Arizona, USA and Messina, South Africa. The Ajoite in Arizona can form beautiful crystals or can be intergrown with other copper-derived minerals. The South African Ajoite is mainly Quartz crystals with a variety of copper-derived mineral inclusions, including Ajoite and Shattuckite. Because Ajoite is rare and relatively unknown, it is sometimes mislabeled as Chrysocolla by miners and sellers. As Ajoite has grown in popularity among healing crystal enthusiasts, sometimes the more common Chrysocolla is mislabeled as Ajoite. For example, “Ajoite” from Luputo Mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is always Chrysocolla and no Ajoite has been confirmed in the Congo.
Additional References:
- Hunlsur, C.S. “Memorial of Harry Berman” Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts (1944)
- Mindat.org, “Best of Ajoite“
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