Cryolite (Na3AlF6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is a rare mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987.

Cryolite was first described in 1798 by Danish veterinarian and physician Peter Christian Abildgaard [da] (1740–1801),[9][10] from rock samples obtained from local Inuit who used the mineral for washing their hides; the actual source of the ore was later discovered in 1806 by the explorer Karl Ludwig Giesecke.

[11][12] who found the deposit at Ivigtut (old spelling) and nearby Arsuk Fjord, Southwest Greenland, where it was extracted by Øresund Chemical Industries.

As natural cryolite is now too rare to be used for this purpose, synthetic sodium aluminium fluoride is produced from the common mineral fluorite.

[15] Besides Ivittuut, on the west coast of Greenland where cryolite was once found in commercial quantities, small deposits of cryolite have also been reported in some areas of Spain, at the foot of Pikes Peak in Colorado, Francon Quarry near Montreal in Quebec, Canada and also in Miask, Russia.