The Zn-spinel gahnite has been discovered in the ∼3.75 Ga Isua Greenstone Belt, West Greenland. It is light blue-green to colourless in hand specimen and colourless in thin section as opposed to most other gahnites which are dark green to brown. The gahnites from Isua have very low Fe and Mg contents, and their compositions are thus close to the endmember gahnite. The gahnite was formed, during metamorphism, from sphalerite, in the absence of Fe-rich sulphides.