When a piece of ulexite is cut with flat polished faces perpendicular to the orientation of the fibers, a good-quality specimen will display an image of whatever surface is adjacent to its other side.

[citation needed] An interesting consequence is the generation of three cones, two of which are polarized, when a laser beam obliquely illuminates the fibers.

Ulexite is frequently found associated with colemanite, borax, meyerhofferite, hydroboracite, probertite, glauberite, trona, mirabilite, calcite, gypsum and halite.

In 1857, Henry How, a professor at King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia discovered borate minerals in the gypsum deposits of the Lower Carboniferous evaporate deposits in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada where he noted the presence of a fibrous borate that he termed natro-boro-calcite,[9] which was actually ulexite (Papezik and Fong, 1975).

Ulexite collected from the Flat Bay gypsum quarry in Newfoundland exhibits acicular "cotton balls" of crystals with a nearly square cross-section formed by the equal development of two pinacoids.

[11] In 1956, John Marmon observed that fibrous aggregates of ulexite project an image of an object on the opposite surface of the mineral.

This optical property is common for synthetic fibers, but not in minerals, giving ulexite the nickname "TV rock".

[18] This optical effect is also the result of the large spaces formed by the sodium octahedral chains in the mineral structure.

Microscopic analysis of ulexite also yields cones of light that clearly emerge from each grain that is thicker than 0.1 mm under the Bertrand lens.

Interference figures yield addition on the concave side of the isogyres, causing ulexite to be biaxial positive.

[16] According to Weichel-Moore and Potter (1963),[13] the orientation of the fibers around the c-axis is completely random based on the variations in extinctions viewed under cross polarization.

[19] The octahedral and polyhedral chains parallel to c, the elongate direction, cause the fibrous habit of ulexite and the fiber optical properties.

[21] The three most important minerals from a worldwide commercial standpoint based on abundance are tincal (also known as borax), ulexite, and colemanite (Ekmekyaper et al., 2008).

[22] High concentrations of economically significant boron minerals generally occur in arid areas that have a history of volcanism.

Boron is primarily used in the manufacturing of fiberglass along with heat-resistant borosilicate glasses such as traditional PYREX, car headlights, and laboratory glassware.

Boron and its compounds are also common ingredients in soaps, detergents, and bleaches, which contributes to the softening of hard water by attracting calcium ions.

Borates are formed when boron bearing solutions, caused from the leaching of pyroclastic rocks, flow into isolated basins where evaporation then takes place.

Ulexite occurs in salt playas and dry saline lakes in association with large-scale gypsum deposits and Na-Ca borates.