Don't know much about Garnets, but I was told that this particular variety called Rhodolite is one of the most beautiful one's of all garnets. An acquaintance shared a video of one that he recently bought, 4.5 carat. Looks beautiful.
Garnets a family of related stones defined by subtle differences in trace elements. They are usually found as a solid solution mixture of various garnets. This the case case with Rhodolite. It is a mixture of Pyrope and Amantadine garnet that has a strong purple red color. Without the purple this mixture goes by various other names.
The combination of lack of inclusions, and high refractive index makes these stones very attractive. Garnets of various types are one of my top gemstone favorites.
And sometimes the color of the stone looks like raspberry.
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File comment: Two rhodolite from my last visit to Tanzania. 8.4 and 12.6 ct. PhotoCollage_1620591452981_copy_1245x1245.jpg [ 245.98 KiB | Viewed 1172 times ]
Its interesting that glhays mentioned tsavorite garnet. Isn't that the dark green variety in garnets? Actually the person who shared the Rhodolite garnet video also had this dark green (not too dark, but dark enough to not be light green), vivid garnet. That was also a beautiful piece. He told me that tsavorite's are also not common, and good pieces are sought after. If I get the video of that, will share it here.
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Thank you Mohmand ,for sharing this beautiful rhodolite garnet! I also like the garnets family: Pyrope l (like Arizona Ant Hill Garnet), Almandine, Spessartite, Hessonite, Malaya, Andradite, grossular ... Garnets are so varied, a great mix of elements. They have been the hosts of much of the world's jewelry
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Mohmand wrote:
Its interesting that glhays mentioned tsavorite garnet. Isn't that the dark green variety in garnets? Actually the person who shared the Rhodolite garnet video also had this dark green (not too dark, but dark enough to not be light green), vivid garnet. That was also a beautiful piece. He told me that tsavorite's are also not common, and good pieces are sought after. If I get the video of that, will share it here.
Tsavorite is the darker green variety of Grossular Garnet, some the Hessonite colors can be extremely attractive when cut right. I guess I shouldn't say that, as there really isn't a right or wrong way. Yes a well cut Tsavorite, eye clean 3ct.+ Is somewhat rare as they typically are in collections already. Although I believe I read relatively recent that there have been recent finds in East Africa.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
Quote:
Although I believe I read relatively recent that there have been recent finds in East Africa.
As I understand it, there is little incentive to develop efficient mining claims by international investors in Kenya because the government issues relatively short term, non-renewable mining claims, varying from 1-20 years. Therefore, most all the tsavorite we see on the market today is stockpiled material originally mined over the early years from the original Campbell Bridges, Scorpion Mine.
Although I believe I read relatively recent that there have been recent finds in East Africa.
As I understand it, there is little incentive to develop efficient mining claims by international investors in Kenya because the government issues relatively short term, non-renewable mining claims, varying from 1-20 years. Therefore, most all the tsavorite we see on the market today is stockpiled material originally mined over the early years from the original Campbell Bridges, Scorpion Mine.
Plus they often don't honor even the short term licenses. If you develop and economically viable deposit you are very likely to lose it through corruption.
I think most of the Tsavorite we see rough these days comes from Tanzania.
It is not like we don't know where to look for it in Kenya. There is one deposit I know that is rich in Tsavorite, and another industrial mineral. The Tsavorite cold be produced as a side product so would be very profitable. It would cost a good amount of money to develop this deposit, so who would do that in such a corrupt environment.
Just look at the John Saul Ruby Mine history, and what happened to my good friend Campbell and his family.
Most of the Ethiopian ones I've seen have been kind of off-color, though I'm not 100% sure in which direction. A small subset did have very good color though. These were just the ones I saw offered in small quantities by opal dealers--unfortunately the prices have always been very high, even more than most of the emeralds, though I think I did get a small sample last year.
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