Citrine — Citrine
Citrine Wikimedia Commons contributor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 3.0

Variety · Quartz group

Citrine

SiO2

Citrine is yellow to orange quartz, naturally rare and mostly from Brazil, Zambia and the Congo. Almost all commercial 'citrine' geodes and points are heat-treated amethyst, recognisable by the orange-brown colour concentrated at the tips and a white base. Natural citrine is pale lemon and evenly coloured.

FormulaSiO2
IMA statusvariety
Crystal systemTrigonal
Mohs hardness7
GroupQuartz group
Type localityNone (variety)

Fakes and treatments

Heated amethyst sold as citrine is the most common treatment in the mineral trade; disclose it. Some 'citrine' is simply smoky quartz.

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Citrine" (Mineral). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/minerals/citrine. Accessed 2026-09-20.

@misc{stratum-citrine,
  title        = {Citrine},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/minerals/citrine}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Mineral article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Sources for this article: Stratum editorial (Stratum editorial);Wikidata (CC0);Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-4.0). As of 2026-09-19; Study pack 2026.09. Data reproduced under the licences shown; text in Stratum's own words unless a section names its source.

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