![oval cut xenotime](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/xenotime-ovale.png)
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![oval cut xenotime](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/xenotime-ovale.png)
![pink vayrynenite from Pakistan square cut](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/varynenite-pakistan18.png)
vayrynenite
Its name honors the Finnish mineralogist Väyrynen who identified it in Finland but the pink samples and gems come from the Paproke mine in Afghanistan.
![sliced polished nephrite from China](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/nephrite-tranche-polie-chine7.png)
nephrite
This is a thick microcrystalline rock the of amphibole family, we can consider nephrite as a microcrystalline variety of ferrous actinolite-tremolite series. The majority of nephrites are composed mainly of actinolite. The white variety, known as” mutton fat “, is composed almost exclusively of tremolite,
![Imperial jade from Burma cut in cabochon](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/jade-imperial-vert-cabochon-birmanie5.png)
jadeite
Its name comes from the term jade. It is the nineteenth century, in 1863, that jadeite was differentiated from nephritis. This is a pyroxene resulting from metamorphism of serpentines high in sodium. Before the nineteenth century both jadeite and nephrite were called with the generic
![cut augite](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/acmite-augite0.png)
augite
Its name, coming from Latin, was given by Werner and it means bright because the surfaces of its divisions are very bright. Amongst the pyroxenes, augite is a ferromagnesian silicate low in calcium. The fassaite variety is low in iron, the jeffersonite variety is rich
![thulite of Norway cut in cabochon](https://www.patrickvoillot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/thulite-norvege-cabochon20.png)
zoisite
Identified by Werner in 1805 in the Austrian Alps, it was named after the Austrian Siegmund Zois, Baron von Edelstein (1747-1819). It is part of the epidote group. Its best-known variety is tanzanite which is not a mineral recognized by the International Mineralogical Commission for