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Sodalite is a rare, rich royal blue mineral widely enjoyed as an ornamental stone.
Discovered in 1806 in Greenland, sodalite did not become important as an
ornamental stone until 1891 when vast deposits of fine material were discovered in
Ontario, Canada. It has since been named Princess Blue after Princess Patricia
who, upon visiting Ontario some time after its discovery, chose sodalite as interior
decoration for Marlborough House in England.
Significant deposits of fine material are restricted
to but a few locales: Bancroft,
Ontario and Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec in Canada; and Litchfield, Maine and
Magnet Cove, Arkansas in the USA. Smaller deposits are found in South
America (Brazil and Bolivia), Portugal, Romania, Burma and Russia.
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