Of course, if a recipe only calls for 1-5% lithium carbonate either of these might be candidates to supply the Li2O. However, Petalite is eight times less and Spodumene five times less concentrated than lithium carbonate so to make either worthwhile the prices would need to be eight and five times cheaper. But if a recipe calls for more there is another problem: Petalite is extremely high in silica, which means supplying the needed Li2O from it is almost certainly going to oversupply SiO2. Spodumene will likely do the same. Both are also high in Al2O3 and likely to oversupply that (or at minimum supply the bulk preventing the presence of kaolin in the recipe).

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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.

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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.

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Industrial spodumene is found in massive quantities across major mining regions like Australia, Africa, and North America. Yet if this 1.5kg rock was pure spodumene, it could be ground and sold for $45 (prices at ceramic suppliers in UK, US and Australia are about $31-35/kg in June 2026). The actual mining commodity price is 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. The battery industry is responsible; it has effectively repriced a ceramic feldspathic mineral as "lithium ore"!
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.
Fortunately, in ceramics, a kiln doesn't care what the source of Li2O is; there are advantages to sourcing it from spodumene and from the carbonate.
| Materials |
Petalite
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| Materials |
Spodumene
Spodumene is a lithium sourcing feldspar, an alternative to lithium carbonate to supply Li2O to ceramic glazes. Contains up to about 8% Li2O. |
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