• Materials for Ceramics

Spodumene

Description: Lithium sourcing feldspar

Oxide	Analysis	Formula	Tolerance
Li2O	8.01%	1.00
Al2O3	27.41%	1.00
SiO2	64.59%	4.00
Oxide Weight		372.07
Formula Weight		372.07

Notes

The name is from the Greek spodos, meaning burnt to ash. Spodumene is a silicate mineral often referred to as lithium feldspar. Its mineral form is characterized by hard needle-like grains of brilliant white color. It is used in ceramics as a source of lithia.

In ceramics, lithia is a very powerful flux, especially when used in conjunction with potash and soda feldspars. As one of only a few natural lithium source materials, spodumene is a valuable component in glass and ceramic/enamel glazes (Li₂O reduces thermal expansion, melting temperature and viscosity of the glaze melt). It was also used in huge quantities to make Corning Ware.

Spodumene is only slightly soluble (in contrast to lithium carbonate). Because spodumene is a natural combination of silica, alumina and lithia it melts better than a chemically equivalent mixture of lithium carbonate, kaolin and silica. Since almost all raw glazes contain kaolin and silica it is normally fairly easy to juggle recipe ingredients, using glaze chemistry, to replace lithium carbonate with spodumene (provided, of course, that the lithium carbonate percentage is not too high). Spodumene can also be substituted for part of the feldspar complement in a recipe without disturbing overall chemistry too much (other than substituting Li₂O for KNaO).

That being said, the price of spodumene is increasing rapidly as industry learns to extract the lithium from it. This is being done via calcination to convert the crystal structure from monoclinic alpha (a-form) to tetragonal beta (β-form). Calcination is then further employed in the acid roasting of spodumene, so that lithium can be extracted as water-soluble lithium sulfate.

Some types of spodumene do contribute to the formation of bubbles in the glaze slurry. You can wash spodumene before use to alleviate this issue (mix it well in plenty of hot water, allow to settle overnight, pour off the water the next day and dry it).

Spodumene is a little more readily fusible than petalite since it is higher in lithium. It is considered a better source of Li₂O for frits. Some sources quote the percentage of Li₂O in molar percent rather than weight percent (resulting in a much higher figure).

Spodumene powder, although heavy, dusts easily and is very unpleasant to smell or breathe. And it sticks to tools, scoops and containers. Good ventilation equipment is essential when working with it.

Related Information

Lithium is no longer affordable for ceramics.

Yet in many cases it seems indispensable

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The crystals that form as this cone 6 fluid-melt glaze solidifies are one of the minerals in the recipe: Spodumene. Actually β-spodumene. But it is so expensive, and there is 42% here! What would it take to reduce the cost of making this glaze ($52/kg in 2026)? Another flux could certainly make it just as melt-fluid, but it would not grow spodumene crystals.

β-spodumene is Li₂O - Al₂O₃ - 4SiO₂ So the 0.22 Li₂O in this glaze would require 0.22 Al₂O₃ and 0.88 SiO₂ to crystallize as a β-spodumene-type lithium aluminosilicate. The glaze contains 0.24 Al₂O₃ and 1.41 SiO₂. There is almost exactly enough lithium to combine with nearly all of the alumina as β-spodumene. The 2% rutile supplies TiO2; it acts as a nucleating agent. Replacing Li₂O with another flux could maintain the melt fluidity, but Na₂O, K₂O or B₂O₃ cannot simply take the place of Li₂O in β-spodumene.

It is possible that less spodumene could still do this. That could be tested by reducing Li₂O to 0.1 and increasing Na₂O to 0.23 (while maintaining the other oxides as-is). B₂O₃ could also be tried (it has a far lower thermal expansion). Of course, effecting changes in specific oxides requires some glaze chemistry.

Why Petalite and Spodumene will seldom substitute for Lithium Carbonate

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Of course, if a recipe only calls for 1-2% lithium carbonate, either of these might be candidates to supply the Li₂O. But Petalite is 8x less concentrated and Spodumene 5x less. Not surprisingly, prices reflect this (unless availability is the issue). But when a recipe calls for 5% lithium carbonate, there is another problem: Petalite is extremely high in SiO₂ and spodumene is very high in Al₂O₃. Introducing enough of either of them to supply the same amount of Li₂O as 5% lithium carbonate can easily oversupply either. While extra SiO₂ can often be accommodated because most glazes contain significant silica, bringing in a lot of Al₂O₃ necesitates cutting the most important normal source: Clay. The result is a slurry that does not harden and does not stay suspended.

Spodumene ore

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Spodumene ore: Typically refiners want 6% or more LiO2 content.

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Why is spodumene so expensive?

Made by Gemini in response to a query to create a fist-sized spodumene ore rock. AI Policy

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Industrial spodumene is found in massive quantities across major mining regions like Australia, Africa, and North America. Spodumene exists as mine concentrate, technical/ceramic grade and battery-grade material (the battery industry it has effectively repriced a ceramic feldspathic mineral as "lithium ore"). Still, if this 1.5kg rock was pure spodumene, it could be processed to ceramic grade and sold for $45 (June 2026). The actual mining commodity price at that time was US$2,100/tonne (pricing this rock at $3). That means finely ground ceramic spodumene is currently selling for 10+ times the mine/concentrate price.

Spodumene pricing is disconnected from mine-markets

The battery market continues to set the economic context for ceramic spodumene and lithium carbonate. Zimbabwe suspended exports of raw minerals and lithium concentrates in February 2026, briefly pushing Chinese lithium-carbonate futures above 178,000 yuan/tonne. Earlier data showed spodumene concentrate recovering from about US$610/tonne in June 2025 to above US$2,000 in early 2026. Prices subsequently fell sharply in March, illustrating how disconnected ceramic-supplier pricing can be from rapidly changing mine-market values. Reuters: Zimbabwe suspension, Reuters: spodumene production and prices, Reuters: March price reversal.

What about lithium carbonate?

Albemarle reported an average industrial price of US$19.53/kg in Q2 2026. So potters currently pay only up to 8 times that! Yet, the processing is formidable: The ore must be crushed and beneficiated, then subjected to a high-temperature calcination that converts alpha spodumene to the more reactive beta form, followed by acid roasting, leaching, neutralization, impurity removal and further conversion.

As evidence that lithium is still important, one potter just purchased a 50-pound bag of spodumene for $1200 so she wouldn’t have to worry about it for the rest of her career!

Glaze chemistry and willingness to do testing insulates you

Fortunately, our kilns don’t care where the Li₂O comes from. Spodumene substitutions for lithium carbonate must be done oxide-for-oxide (their accompanying SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ make weight-for-weight replacement invalid). Melt-flow, crystallization, thermal-expansion and slurry tests, not just unity-formula matching, are not only important in industrial settings but valuable to potters (insight-live.com is designed for this). Ceramic suppliers should be asked for current chemistry, mineral form and particle-size specifications; “spodumene” alone is insufficient..

Li2O from Spodumene instead of Lithium Carbonate:

Good chemistry and economy, but bad physics

This picture has its own page with more detail, click here to see it.

Lithium carbonate is now ultra-expensive. Yet the reactive glaze on the left needs it. Spodumene has a high enough Li₂O concentration to be a possible source here. It also has a complex chemistry, but the other oxides it contains are those common to glazes anyway. I did recipe rescue calculations and got a pretty good match in the formulas (lower section in the green boxes). Then I made 10-gram balls and did a GLFL test at 2200F.

Not surprisingly, this recipe is very runny; that's why the tiny yellow crystals grow during cooling. The new version fires very similarly, perhaps better. My calculated cost to mix these in 2022 was $17.84/kg vs. $10.40/kg. In 2026, the difference is even greater! But there is a practical cost: Poor slurry properties. The spodumene sources so much Al₂O₃ that 70% Alberta Slip had to be dropped to accommodate it! How does one use this type of glaze without ruining kiln shelves? Using a catcher glaze is one answer.

Example of a commercial spodumene 2022

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Our theoretical chemistry is fairly close to this (notice these numbers are not precise, they indicate a range or minimum).

Spodumene can bubble when mixed with water.

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This is what happens when some spodumenes are mixed with water. They generate foam and bubbles. This is disruptive in glazes and can be alleviated by washing and drying the powder before use. Or calcining at 500-600F.

Here is why Spodumene powder glistens in the light

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Spodumene ceramic grade, used in glazes, is a 200 mesh material. How could the particles be big enough to glisten in the light? This is a micrograph of some of the particles from the 0.6% plus 100 mesh material that I extracted in a particle size distribution test. And 8% is plus 200 mesh. And all that material is flakey like this, millions of tiny mirrors. This also explains why the material becomes airborne so easily and why it is really really not good to breathe this stuff in.

Spodumene glaze with natural ironstone concretion speckle

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L3362A speckle test cone 10R (G2240 spodumene) using ground ironstone concretions (50% 70-100 mesh, 35% 50-70 mesh, 15% 40-50 mesh) at 0.5%, 0.3%, 0.1% (left to right).

Add spodumene to this floating blue:

To moderate the excessive variegation

This picture has its own page with more detail, click here to see it.

GA6-C (left) and GA6-E (right) at cone 6 oxidation. GA6-E adds 4% spodumene to GA6-C, which contains 4% rutile (the base is 80% Alberta Slip and 20% Frit 3134). Notice how the spodumene suppresses the large pale, overly variegated areas that commonly develop in GA6-C, producing a more uniform blue.

Why? The small spodumene addition introduces Li₂O along with Al₂O₃ and SiO₂, changing the melt chemistry and therefore the crystallization and phase-development behavior of the rutile/iron-bearing glaze during cooling. Thus it is safer to regard spodumene as modifying the titanium-related crystallization rather than simply reducing it. Like GA6-C, GA6-E requires a slow-cool firing schedule to develop the rich blue (e.g. C6DHSC). Both look best on darker-burning bodies.

A problem with spodumene fluxed glazes: bubbles, surface dimples

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This is a closeup of G3813B, a recipe with 11% spodumene. Although the glaze is very glossy, its surface is marred by tiny dimples, the remnant of broken and partially healed bubbles escapes. These bubbles were in the laydown and dried in place (the spodumene generates these in the slurry itself, making it frothy). This can be reduced by drop-and-hold firing techniques, but a better answer is to find a frit to source the Li₂O.

LOI-gassing and Spodumene produce this:

Melt fluidity with blisters that variegate, then heal

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This pitcher was made by Elora Pottery. Like everyone using glazes that require lithium (from Spodumene or Lithium Carbonate), they are facing the unbelievable price increases these materials are seeing. Staci actually calculated the weight applied to each piece, determining the $$ dip cost! Notice her material costs on the photo. During efforts to reduce the spodumene content, I noticed the expensive carbonate colorants and asked if these were causing blisters in the glaze (because of gassing associated with their LOI). When I saw this picture, it became clear that they are. But in a good way. Part of the variegation we are seeing is doubtless the mechanical disturbance they cause in the fluid-melt phase-separated glass. But the melt fluidity of the glaze appears to be sufficient to heal them and smooth out the glass during cooling.

What did we do about the spodumene? We calculated to use lithium carbonate to supply the Li₂O instead - it took one fifth as much material. Still super expensive, but easier to use and more consistent.

Links

URLs	https://www.talisonlithium.com/lithium Technical Information about Spodumene from Talison website
URLs	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spodumene Spodumene at Wikipedia
URLs	http://www.talisonlithium.com/ Talison Lithium website Talison Lithium Pty Ltd mines and produces lithium minerals at its Greenbushes operations in the South West of Western Australia in the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes. The site is comprised of a number of open cut mining pits for spodumene mineral and lithium concentrate production facilities.
URLs	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_mining_in_Australia Lithium Mining in Australia at Wikipedia Western Australia has large deposits of hard rock spodumene.
URLs	https://corelithium.com.au/ Core Lithium spodumene project in Australia As of 2022 they are developing a spodumene lithium project near Darwin Port in the Northern Territory, Australia.
URLs	https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/spodumene Spodumene at The Canadian Encyclopedia The Tantalum Mining Corporation (Tanco) extracts from an LCT pegmatite deposit (Lithium, Cesium and Tantalum), it has been in commercial operation since the 1970s.
Materials	Lithium Carbonate A powerful melter very valuable in ceramic glazes. It is 40% Li2O and has an LOI of 60% (lost as CO2 on firing). This material in now incredibly expensive.
Materials	Petalite
Materials	Amblygonite
Materials	Lepidolite
Materials	Triphylite
Materials	Montebrasite Concentrate
Materials	Spodumene Concentrate
Materials	Foote Spodumene
Materials	Australian Spodumene
Materials	SC 1.1 Spodumene
Materials	CGS 3.1 Spodumene
Materials	SC 1.2 Spodumene
Materials	UGS Spodumene
Materials	FSC 2.1 Spodumene
Materials	Feldspar In ceramics, feldspars are used in glazes and clay bodies. They vitrify stonewares and porcelains. They supply KNaO flux to glazes to help them melt.
Materials	SC7.0 Spodumene
Materials	Fusion Frit F-493 This frit is very valuable for one simple reason: It is a higher-quality source of Li2O for glazes than raw lithium carbonate. It contains 11% Li2O.
Materials	Laguna Spodumene Substitute
Temperatures	Spodumene converts to beta phase (1082-)
Temperatures	Spodumene melts (1418-1428)
Hazards	Feldspar Feldspars are abundant and varied in nature. They contain small amounts of quartz (while nepheline syenite does not).
Hazards	Lithium Toxicology
Typecodes	Generic Material Generic materials are those with no brand name. Normally they are theoretical, the chemistry portrays what a specimen would be if it had no contamination. Generic materials are helpful in educational situations where students need to study material theory (later they graduate to dealing with real world materials). They are also helpful where the chemistry of an actual material is not known. Often the accuracy of calculations is sufficient using generic materials.
Typecodes	Feldspar The most common source of fluxes for high and medium temperature glazes and bodies.
Glossary	Pyroceramics
Oxides	Li2O - Lithium Oxide, Lithia

Data

Frit Softening Point	1421C M
Density (Specific Gravity)	2.60

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