Afwillite is a calcium hydroxide nesosilicate mineral with formula Ca3(SiO3OH)2·2H2O. It occurs as glassy, colorless to white prismatic monoclinic crystals. Its Mohs scale hardness is between 3 and 4. It occurs as an alteration mineral in contact metamorphism of limestone. It occurs in association with apophyllite, natrolite, thaumasite, merwinite, spurrite, gehlenite, ettringite, portlandite, hillebrandite, foshagite, brucite and calcite. It was first described in 1925 for an occurrence in the Dutoitspan Mine, Kimberley, South Africa and was named for Alpheus Fuller Williams (1874–1953), a past official of the De Beers diamond company. Afwillite is typically found in veins of spurrite and it belongs to the nesosilicate sub-class. It is monoclinic, its space group is P2 and its point group is 2. Formation of afwillite It is suggested that afwillite forms in fractured veins of the mineral spurrite. Jennite, afwillite, oyelite and calcite are all minerals that form in layers within spurrite veins. It appears that afwillite, as well as calcite, forms from precipitated fluids. Jennite is actually an alteration of afwillite, but both formed from calcium silicates through hydration. Laboratory studies determined that afwillite forms at a temperature below , usually around 100 °C. Afwillite and spurrite are formed through contact metamorphism of limestone. Contact metamorphism is caused by the interaction of rock with heat and/or fluids from a nearby crystallizing silicate magma. Structure and properties Afwillite has a complex monoclinic structure, and the silicon tetrahedra in the crystal structure are held together by hydrogen bonds. It has perfect cleavage parallel to its (101) and poor cleavage parallel to its (100) faces. It is biaxial and its 2V angle, the measurement from one optical axis to the other optical axis, is 50 – 56 degrees. When viewed under crossed polarizers in a petrographic microscope, it displays first-order orange colors, giving a maximum birefringence of 0.0167 (determined by using the Michel- Levy chart). Afwillite is optically positive. Additionally, it has a prismatic crystal habit. Under a microscope afwillite looks like wollastonite, which is in the same family as afwillite. Afwillite is composed of double chains that consist of calcium and silicon polyhedral connected to each other by sharing corners and edges. This causes continuous sheets to form parallel to its miller index [-101] faces. The sheets are bonded together by hydrogen bonds and are all connected by Ca-Si-O bonds (Malik and Jeffery, 1976). Each calcium atom is in 6-fold octahedral coordination with