What is "Tanzanite"? A December Birthstone: With Timothy C. Catron. Tanzanite is a Calcium Aluminum Silicate mineral, known as Zoisite, with vanadium impurities giving is a deep blue or violet color.
What is Tanzanite? Tanzanite is a trade name that was first used by Tiffany and Company for gem-quality specimens of a mineral named zoisite with a blue color. Tiffany could have sold the material under the mineralogical name of "blue zoisite," but they thought the name "tanzanite" would ...
In cinnabar's natural mineral and pigmented form, it's not dangerous. However, when temperatures rise, it releases a mercury vapor which can be toxic if inhaled. "Mercury is toxic, but as long as the cinnabar isn't heated, the mercury is locked by the sulfur, making cinnabar low in tox...
I guess my wish for this new year, on this website, would be that mineral enthusiast, newbies and novices, do some due diligence with self-education before buying anything. For the purchase of mineral specimens, ebay can be a potentially dangerous site for novices to start out on without...
tanzanite was mistaken for peridot. After a convoluted path that took the tanzanite samples from the Merelani Hills to Kenya, then Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, and across the street to the Gemological Institute of America, tanzanite was finally and correctly identified as a mineral variety of...
Mohs hardness value is not absolute hardness value, but relative hardness value, relatively rough. But it is convenient and practical and suitable for field work. HardnessSubstance or mineral 0.2–0.3caesium, rubidium 0.5–0.6lithium, sodium, potassium, candle wax ...
We have now entered a new century and may look forward to the introduction of new gem materials. Some have already appeared. A commercially important source of diamonds in Canada is now mined, a new gem mineral, pezzottaite, from Madagascar, and two rare stones which had been described...
What is indicatrix of a mineral? The Isotropic Indicatrix The optical indicatrix is simplya three dimensional object constructed by drawing vectors of length proportional to the refractive index for light vibrating parallelto the vector direction from a central point. ...
Needles are the most predominant type of silk inclusion, which are long and thin with mineral deposits. The "star" effect is caused when interactions take place within silk inclusions in sapphire. If there are more inclusions in sapphire, this directly correlates to a decline in its value. ...
Such is the mineral wealth that companies like Afgem and others are keen to become major players. "Personally, I would like to be very honest with you, by confirming that it will NOT BE POSSIBLE [his own emphasis] to expel Afgem from Block C," Njoolay says matter of factly. He will...