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Sapphire blue tourmaline! Such stones are very rare. The search for such a stone is like the pursuit of the Holy Grail.
Historically, two Brazilian mines, the Manoel Mutuca in Arauai and the Golconda Mine northwest of the city of Govenador Valadares, are the source of the fabled "sapphire blue" indicolite. The best of these stones have an intense blue primary hue and a turquoise secondary hue, and are known as Mutuca Blue. Stones of this quality are extremely rare. Indicolite is found sporadically throughout the entire region of Minas Gerais.... (2006) Complete Story
Chrome is a special variety of green tourmaline that owes its vivid green hue to trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. These are the same elements that also impart to emerald and tsavorite garnet their distinctive pure green hues. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the finest chrome tourmaline tends to resemble the finer examples of emerald and tsavorite. Chrome tourmaline is actually a distinct tourmaline variety called chrome dravite, found in East Africa. Chrome tourmaline is often associated with tsavorite garnet; miners will usually concentrate their efforts on tsavorite, as it fetches higher prices.... (2006) Complete Story
Though emerald is undoubtedly precious, it is certainly not among the new precious stones. Before the discovery of emerald in Colombia in the sixteenth century, the green variety of corundum was called oriental emerald. The only source of true emerald known to early Mediterranean cultures was the fabled Cleopatra’s mines in the Sinai Desert. Two mines, both discovered.... (2003) Complete Story
China was one of the first to master the art of culturing. The Middle Kingdom began producing cultured pearls in the fourteenth century. In the 1960s a state-controlled industry introduced freshwater cultured pearls to the world market. Originally cultured using the wild Cristaria plicata or cockscomb mussel, initial production was of low quality baroque pearls, disparagingly known as rice crispies....
(2006) Complete Story
The Oro Fino Mine in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, about ten miles east of the Manoel Mutuca mine, was the legendary source of some of the worlds finest red tourmaline, called rubellite. Stones from this source have a pure red primary hue and a purplish secondary hue, yielding a lovely purplish red that has been compared to the color of the Bing cherry. Although Oro Fino has been closed for more than a decade, the term Oro Fino Red has come to designate the very finest red tourmaline, regardless of source....
(2006) Complete Story
