New horizons: How fresh discoveries push the gemstone industry forward

by carly_midgley | October 1, 2018 10:11 am

By Lauriane Lognay

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As a writer and, most importantly, as a gemstone wholesaler, I try to keep up with all the new discoveries, treatments, and price fluctuations happening in the gem industry. The gemmology world is a scientific community, bent on learning everything there is to know about every gem there is to discover. Each year, at least 50 new minerals, rocks, and gems are discovered. They vary in importance, and not all are gem quality or even useful, so of those 50, only one or two at most make it into the jewellery market.

Discovering new varieties and new gems is always exciting for jewellers and for our clients. Customers get to have more choice, more colours, and a bigger price range for gems. Looking for green? No problem—we have 10 gems from which you can choose. Looking for a certain price? No problem—we have three options for you! The more we discover, the more possibilities we can present.

Even better are the cases where the discovery is a new variety of an existing stone, because we already know a lot about the gem, its hardness, and how to work with it on the bench. We simply get to enjoy a new colour.

Something blue

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In the last five years, a surprising amount of interesting new gem varieties have arrived on the scene, including grape botryoidal agates from Indonesia, ammonite negatives with pyrite (mostly from Russia), aquaprase quartz[3] from Africa, and much more. So, when a supplier came to me with a new variety of gemstone in June 2017, I was already waiting for something great. I didn’t know I would be getting something amazing!

I bought some roughs of the new gem, which my supplier claimed was a blue variety of garnet. There was no proof the stone was what he said it was—the purchase was all based on trust. However, I knew the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) was also getting a sample.

In November of that year, the institute confirmed the stone to be blue-green pyrope-spessartine garnet with high vanadium or, in simpler terms, the first blue garnet by GIA definition[4].

Every gemmology schoolbook will tell you garnet does not exist in this particular colour, except in the form of a colour-change garnet, in which case blue is not the primary hue. (It’s more of a bluish-green in sunlight, and a violet-red when lit by light-emitting diode [LED].) To quote GIA:

“Unlike traditional blue-green garnets that exhibit a color change from purplish or orange red in incandescent light to bluish or yellowish green in daylight, these essentially remained blue in the lighting conditions we tested (CIE standard illuminants D65, A, F10, and F9, and a cool LED light with a 7500K color temperature). They showed only a weak color change from violet or blue in incandescent light … to green or blue-green in daylight.“

Blue garnet’s colour is caused mainly by the element vanadium. Normally, in a pyrope-spessartite colour-change garnet, the colours come from vanadium and manganese, but to this author’s knowledge, this new type has a higher dose of vanadium than ever previously seen. The first deposit (and the only one, as far as we know) is at the border of Tanzania and Kenya.

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Why is this a big discovery?

The discovery of blue garnet proves nothing is impossible—if a gemstone doesn’t exist in a certain colour, maybe it just has not been found yet. What’s more, this gem brings a new type of blue to the market! Its dark and saturated greenish-blue is a new option that differs from sapphire, indicolite tourmaline, tanzanite (which is more violet-blue), spinel (more teal-blue), topaz (sky blue, Swiss blue, and London blue), zircon (turquoise-blue), and aquamarine.

With a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale, this gem is perfect for any kind of jewellery and offers a new birthstone colour choice for January babies. (For more, consult the Practical Gemmology Handbook, published by the Gemmological Association and Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain [Gem-A] in 2012.) A few faceted specimens have been released on the market, although big roughs (larger than two carats) are rare to nonexistent at the moment. Gemmologists, laboratories, and jewellers alike have jumped at the opportunity to buy this blue gem, and finding the material has become difficult.

Rough deal

Buying blue garnet is also a challenging task because the Tanzanian government has been changing the laws in the country to benefit the economy—a good thing for Tanzania, but not so much for outside buyers. The selling of rough gemstones has become complicated, as most of the rough has to be cut in the country before it is exported elsewhere, completely changing the prices and market.

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In Tanzania, smaller roughs (those under a carat) are almost never cut inside the country. Therefore, with new laws forbidding the sale of facet rough outside Tanzania, it has become difficult for smaller rough to be sold for cutting. Tanzanian cutters are well known for cutting bigger-sized gems, unlike those in India, for example, who are known to be good with smaller rough and gems.

Blue garnet is one of the gems found in small sizes, and is therefore difficult to get out of Tanzania now. Much of the industry is expecting (but hoping against) a rise in prices for all gemstones from Tanzania, including spinels, garnets, tanzanites, and tourmalines, if the laws don’t change again soon. Suppliers in the country are having a hard time meeting demand for gems because of this.

Let us hope the blue garnet will stay with us and be a new gem colour we can add to our jewellery collections.

Heating up the tanzanite trade

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A rumour recently started in the gemmology world, saying a new source of tanzanite (our favourite blue-violet gemstone!) had been discovered near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. This would mean the tanzanite mining quarries in the Mirerani Hills are not the only ones in the world anymore.

The news surfaced back in April, but little information on the exact location or future plans of the Tanzanian government has come to light since. Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli—who visited the existing quarries in the spring—said another source of the blue zoisite[8] had been discovered, but did not mention the exact location.

“We have built a wall surrounding the mining quarries of Mirerani in order to curb the notorious theft and smuggling of tanzanite,” said Magufuli[9] while inaugurating the 25-km (15 ½-mi) long fort, described as the ‘Great Wall of Mirerani.’ “The tanzanite mine has been the victim of countless acts of violence and theft in the past year, and the company was worried for its employees’ security. Hence, the decision to build a wall around it to try and deter the aggressors and thieves.”

It seems the same strategy will be employed at the new source as well.

“We have also just discovered a new location where there are ample tanzanite reserves underground,” added Magufuli. “Soon, this location will also be surrounded by a wall before mining operations start.”

The news being fairly fresh and the new location yet to be named, we’ll have to wait and see on this rumour, although it could change the marketing of the blue-violet gemstone. What would it mean for the gemmology world? Could the ‘gemstone of a generation’ be with us for much longer than we thought?

Looking ahead

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Discovering a new source of tanzanite could either have devastating effects on the market for this gem or allow for more people to buy it should the price be reduced. After all, the stone’s current marketing is entirely based on the fact it is unique. Its nickname (the ‘gemstone of a generation’) comes from the fact there has traditionally been only one source of this treasure[11]. The geological phenomenon that permitted tanzanite to be created, while not really unique, was a very special set of events within the Earth’s crust; the chances of it happening again elsewhere, with the same elements present, was next to none.

In other words, now that a new source has been found and we will have a lot more tanzanite on the market than we predicted, we may have to revise our marketing of this beautiful stone.

On the other side of the coin, finding a new source could be good for business. Tanzanite’s cost could lower somewhat, making it more approachable to a wider range of customers. Getting it off its pedestal will do nothing to take away from its beauty, and it will still be rare and difficult to find, as two mines would hardly be too much for the market.

Brightening the future

We tend to forget gemstones—whether citrine, garnet, tourmaline, or any other type—are still rare, still precious gems, and still beautiful. Newly discovered mines and gemstones will always benefit the gemmology world, because giving our clients more choice and a bigger price range can only help the business. Additionally, the more we show we know about these discoveries and the goings-on of the jewellery market, the more clients will be impressed and want to put trust in our businesses.

Pantone may have decided Ultra Violet was the colour of the year for 2018, but our favourite (and new favourite) blue gemstones are not letting go of their crown just yet!

[12]Lauriane Lognay is a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (FGA), and has won several awards. She is a gemstone dealer working with jewellers to help them decide on the best stones for their designs. Lognay is the owner of Rippana Inc., a Montréal-based company working internationally in coloured gemstone, lapidary, and jewellery services. She can be reached via e-mail by contacting rippanainfo@gmail.com.

Source URL: https://www.jewellerybusiness.com/features/new-horizons-how-fresh-discoveries-push-the-gemstone-industry-forward/

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