The name Apatite derived from Greek meaning "I am misleading", because it can be easily confused with other minerals .
The material is soft, brittle and sensitive to heat. It has a wide variety of colour. Clear transparent stones are faceted, and chatoyant specimens are cut into cabochons (Apatite cat's eye).
Apatite is most often seen in blue, but also can be found in brown, pink, yellow, green, violet. Moon rocks collected by astronauts during the Apollo program contain traces of apatite.
Mohs hardness 5
Apatite Treatments:-
Some violet apatite turns green on exposure to radium (Przibram and Caffyn, 1956) and violet apatite which has lost its color from heating (perhaps to 500°C) is turned partly green and partly violet; there is no effect of electrons and only a minor effect of X-rays on some yellow and green specimens (Pough and Rogers, 1947; Pough, 1957) – Nassau (1984)
Color commonly improved by heat-treatment - Blue Chart Gem Identification, Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, 2010, p 4
Significant Gem Localities:-
Apatite is mined in Brazil, Burma, India, Madagascar, Mexico, kenya, Namibia, Russia, Canada, Czech Republic, Mozambique, Norway, Germany, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, and the United States.