For almost two millennia it was
believed that Diamond was indeed the rarest of all the gems found on this god
blessed planet of ours. Until one fine Tanzanian afternoon, a Masaai tribesman
found a blue-violet crystal and showed his little discovery to Manuel de Souza
a tailor by profession and prospector by passion, who was in the Mount
Kilimanjaro region in search of Rubies. It was at first concluded that the
stones were unusually vibrant sapphires, but later testing by the Gemological
Institute of America (GIA), Harvard University, The British Museum and
Heidelberg University identified it as a variant of mineral zoisite. Such is
the story of the rarest of rare gemstone on Earth-The Tanzanite.
Tanzanite Gemstone |
Blue Zoisite or Tanzanite Birthstone was discovered
in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Tanzanite was given its
commercial name by the Tiffany & Co. of New York in 1968 as part of its 175th
anniversary celebration, the name is said to represent the stones country of
birth Tanzania. Tanzanite is a gemstone that is beyond rare, its supply will
last only another 30 years and as time passes its rarity keeps on increasing.
It is found in only one place on Earth in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro
and intense geological research has shown that its possibility of being found
outside its current site of mining is one in a million. Therefore, its extent
of rarity both geologically and geologically is thousand times more than that
of Diamonds.
Blue Birthstone |
This blue-violet stone is known for
its remarkable trichroism that allows it to appear in three alternate colors of
blue sapphire, violet and burgundy depending on crystal orientation. The world’s
largest faceted tanzanite is 737.81 carats and one of the famous large
tanzanite is the ‘Queen of Kilimanjaro’. Recently at the mines in Tanzania, a
tanzanite weighing over 3.4 KG or 16, 839 carats was found.
Gemstones |