Abstract:Recently a new producing area of high-quality variscite has been found. The authors used such means as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), EPMA analysis, infrared spectrometer, laser Raman spectrometer and ultra-violet-visible spectrophotometry to investigate this natural object. EPMA shows that the variscite in Yunnan is mainly composed of P and Al, and contains trace Fe and V; XRD shows that the mineral composition is very pure; the infrared spectrum and Raman spectrum show characteristic absorption band of group. FTIR also shows the existence of constitution water and crystallization water; UV spectra show that Fe3+ causes the absorption peaks around 300 nm and 420 nm whereas Fe3+ and V3+ cause the wild absorption band around 630 nm. Due to the fact that the variscite is often used as an imitation of turquoise, the authors made a comparative analysis of the spectra of the variscite and turquoise in order to distinguish the two minerals.