Mineral Mondays #18: Taafeite

Mineral Mondays

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Last month I went over 5 of the rarest gems on earth, one of them being Taafeite.

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Taafeite is an interesting gem. It doesn't have a long history and it is not very well known, probably due to it's rarity. It's a gem that I do not own yet, but it's on my list.

Source - GIA

History

The history is very important for this gem, because without a chance encounter it still may remain classified as a spinel. In 1945 an Austrian gemologist named Richard Taafe purchased a bunch of gems from a dealer in Dublin, Ireland which included some spinel. As he was examining the gems he noticed one had a property known as "birefringence", double refraction. He immediately knew the gems were not spinel and sent them off to a lab to be analyzed. The results came back that they may not be spinel, but it wasn't until 1951 when they were chemically analyzed that it was officially known they were not spinel. It was a new gemstone which would be named Taafeite in 2002.

Source - Wiki - an example of double refraction from calcite.

Where To Find It

Taafeite is so far only found in Sri Lanka, Burma, Southern Tanzania and China. 

The Gem

Taafeite is a beryllium magnesium aluminum oxide. It is very similar to spinel which is why it was passed off for so long as spinel. It comes in a variety of colors, from red, green, violet, blue mauve, lavender and colorless. 

The price of taafeite ranges wildly from a few thousand a carat to tens of thousands. Because it is so rare it's hard to even find the gemstone to buy which is probably why the prices vary so wildly. 

Source - Rob Lavinsky

Some Taafeite Facts

• Shape - hexogonal
• Composition - BeMgAl4O8(Beryllium Magnesium Aluminum Oxide)
• Hardness - 8 - 8.5
• Refractive Index - 1.722
• Color - red, violet, blue, lavender, mauve, green, coloroless
• Localities - Sri Lanka, Burma, Southern Tanzania & China

Thanks for reading!

Next Mineral Mondays #19: Alexandrite

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