I am familiar with scorzalite, having seen the first such beads brought into the US from Mauritania in 1989 or 1990 (by Howard and Marie-José Opper—who then provided a good article about this material for Ornament). I believe I can tell scorzalite from lapis on-sight, in spite of their similarity.

The surprising issue, for me, was the idea that there is lapis from this region. In my years of studying North African beads, I don't recall ever seeing any (imported) lapis—and I would be inclined to expect that any lapis beads found there are fairly recent. The same might be said for sodalite beads. Of course, this is a generalization, and there are bound to be some exceptions to it. I'm just saying I don't know of any.

Although scorzalite is rare and expensive, I have handled at least three long necklaces of these beads, now in private collections. There is a very good strand at The Bead Museum.

Jamey