Tanzanite - One of the world's rarest and most valuable gemstones!
Well everything started when Manuel d'Souza a tailor from Goa moved to Arusha (Tanzania) do to a contract in order to make uniforms for the army. His real passion was for prospecting (initially for gold and then later for minerals and gemstones).
He was living in the Mererani hills an area where Maasai people are living too. One day one Maasai tribesman found an unusual rock and since he never sow something like that before and knew that Manuel d'Souza is always interested in different stones he give it to him.
He got really fascinated by the beauty of the stones and since even him didn't know exactly what the gemstone is decided to contact a good friend John Saul a geologist who was mining aquamarine in the region around Mount Kenya.
Even him didn't know exactly what the stone is so he decided to send a sample to his father Hyman Saul, vice president at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. Hayman send one sample of the stone to Gemological Institute of America and one to Harvard University. Both institutes identified the new gem as a variety of the mineral zoisite.
Initially the new discovered stones was called "blue zoisite" but not for a long time as Hayman shows the stones to Henry Platt from Tiffany & Co who fall in love with it. Of course for better marketing and trying to capitalize on the rarity and single location of the gem Tiffany & Co rename the stone to Tanzanite!
Let's keep in mind that this was happening in 1968 one year later after was discover by accident by one of the Maasai tribesman. Seeing the financial potential in 1971 the Tanzanian government nationalized the mine.
What is really interesting is that what is now a multi million dollars business when it comes to Tanzanite was discover initially by a Maasai tribesman, a person that same like the other members of the tribe don't value the money...and this is the irony of life most of the times!
Few interesting things about Tanzanite:
Tanzanite is noted for its remarkably strong trichroism. What that means is that it shows 3 different colors when view the stone in 3 different angles. The stones comes form a very light blue to a very dark blue even to a reddish brown sometimes. You should know that there is no universally accepted method of grading colored gemstones but the darker the blue is the better quality the stone is.
It is one thousand times rarer then a diamond and what is really interesting is that in 2002 have been chose the December birthstone by the American Gem Trade Association.
Since is my first blog in this niche i will appreciate all the feedback!
As well you can take a look at:
Who are all the voters of your blogs?
Torshavn (Faroe Islands) - A place where time stood still...
I'll be really interested in your take on diamonds. I've heard many rumors they aren't that rare and it's just a great marketing ploy.
De Beers convinced everyone that engagement rings were a thing as well.
There is a guy who uses a suction dredge off the coast of Africa to mine diamonds.
De Beers controls of the world's diamond market as they are the largest producer and distributor of diamonds but don't forget that everything have a price and they use their power and "sponsor" a lot of military organizations to bring down governments and install new ones and all this to expand their influence and power in Africa. But because of this a lot of innocent people died... a lot and all this to find easier ways to "wash the diamonds" faster and much easier. It's greed i know... but is so sad what happen because of them!
You heard right diamonds aren't really as rare as you might think that they are. As a matter of fact they are mined almost all over the world. It's all about the demand!!!
Thank you again for a interesting post.
I did know about the pure scientific facts about it, like how hard it is, the chemical formula and so.
But i did not know about the history about it that i also find fascinating :)
The next post in your blog i am about to read now is the one about Alexandrite, and since both this post and the one about diamonds was of high interest for me to read about, i really look forward to it.
And i can only beg you to keep up writing more about this things, i love it! :)
Congratulations @georgemales! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPWow one more badge! Thanks a lot @steemitboard!
Keep them coming! :)
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by georgemales from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Thanks a lot for the visit and for the support!
great post..thank you
it looks a bit different with the pink argyle diamonds...the mine most likely will shut down in a couple of years...
btw what is the price range for those Tanzanite?
cheers
Well they are saying for a very long time already that the mine it will shut down in couple of years and they are still mining without a problem. It will for sure eventually but for the moment i think is just a marketing "tool" that they use to keep the desire and the price up for the gemstone. Most probably it will shut down in our life time!
Are you asking about the prices in general about the Tanzanite or about the 3 rings from the last photo?
thanks for the quick reply,i have friends who work in the argyle mine....as well it could be marketing as well..who knows??
no not the rings...the price for 1ct of Tanzanite in general?roughly only,there will be some better and less quality stones as you said it in your post.
thanks mate
Well it all depends about some factors. If you are asking about a loose Tanzanite with a rich color (so a good quality one) then we are talking about 425 - 450 usd for a carat!
thanks a lot for your answer.i hope i dont ask you too much...i might have to do some research on the web....
if i have any questions,can i ask you again?is that ok with you?
its not too bad i think, i like the color of the stone..
i think it is a cut stone for 450US per 1ct!!?
where would be the best place to buy them without going there?
thank you so much
You are welcome! Yes you can ask me any questions you want as i am really happy that you are interested in jewelry and you like Tanzanite. So fell free to ask me anything! Now depends where you live but a loose Tanzanite (unmounted one) should have the same price (per carat) no matter where you go!
thank you.im still based in thailand.so i guess bangkok would be a good start to look for them....will be in bkk again about August for a couple of days.
yes an unmounted one,prefer it that way,same my wife too...
cheers
Wow Thailand it's an amazing place... i will say definitely buy her one as at the end of the day "a happy wife is a happy life"!