Cryolite (a Sodium Aluminum Fluoride) is a rather uncommon mineral. The crystals are usually snow-white but may be colorless and more rarely brownish, reddish, or even black. Cryolite is found in masses of waxy luster. It was used as a source of metallic sodium and aluminum but now it is chiefly as a flux in producing aluminum from bauxite and for making salts of sodium, aluminum, and porcelaneous glass. Cryolite, associated with siderite, galena, and chalcopyrite, was discovered at Ivigtut, Greenland, in 1794. This locality remains as the only important occurrence.
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