It had been XRD by Malcolm Back at the Royal Ontario Museum, and SEM probed by Robert Gault at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Color is usually black. Luster is sub-metallic. Diaphaneity is opaque. Crystal Habits include prismatic crystals.
Fracture is subconchoidal to uneven.
Hardness is 6. Streak is brownish-black. Associated Minerals include corundum, donnayite, gmelinite, gobbinsite, hercynite and phillipsite.