Bazzite is a beryllium

Beryllium

Beryllium is the chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include beryl and chrysoberyl...

 scandium

Scandium

Scandium is a chemical element with symbol Sc and atomic number 21. A silvery-white metallic transition metal, it has historically been sometimes classified as a rare earth element, together with yttrium and the lanthanoids...

 cyclosilicate mineral

Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

 with chemical formula: Be₃(Sc,Fe)₂Si₆O₁₈. It crystallizes in the hexagonal

Hexagonal crystal system

In crystallography, the hexagonal crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems, the hexagonal lattice system is one of the 7 lattice systems, and the hexagonal crystal family is one of the 6 crystal families...

 crystal system typically as small blue hexagonal crystals up to 2 cm length. It has a Mohs hardness of 6.5-7 and a specific gravity

Specific gravity

Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance. Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of the reference substance. The reference substance is nearly always water for...

 of 2.77 to 2.85.

Hard to distinguish from blue beryl

Beryl

The mineral beryl is a beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be3Al26. The hexagonal crystals of beryl may be very small or range to several meters in size. Terminated crystals are relatively rare...

.

Occurs in miarolitic cavities in granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

, in alpine veins and in scandium bearing granitic pegmatites.

It was first described from an occurrence in Baveno

Baveno

Baveno is a town and comune in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, part of Piedmont, northern Italy. It is located on the west shore of Lago Maggiore, 13 miles North West of Arona by rail....

, Italy. Named after the discoverer, Alessandro E. Bazzi.