Tanzanite

Its range of lavender-blue colors make tanzanite unique in the gem world, creating a wonderful addition to the designer's gemstone palette.  Tanzanite's color has been compared to the color of Elizabeth Taylor's famous lavender eyes.  As a rule, the larger the tanzanite, thedeeper the color.  Very rarely, tanzanite is found in shades of yellow, green and pink.  Estimates are that the entire known source of tanzanite will dry up in fifteen to twenty years. The dusty frontier town of Arusha, in the northern part of Tanzania is located on a plateau in the Great Rift Valley amidst the Serengeti Plain, Nogorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Olduvai Gorge and Mt. Kilimanjaro National Parks. The closest 'major' city to the tanzanite mines of Merelani, Arusha is the world center for tanzanite brokers, sellers and buyers. Arusha is also where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is based.  Living and working conditions areharsh for Tanzanian miners. Merelani mine pits can flood in the rainy season, the miners' shacks are no more than corrugated aluminum and branches, and some shacks hold explosives used in mining, creating even more danger for miners.

the 'one source' wonder Tanzanite is a gem variety of zoisite that is strongly pleochroic, showing shades of either purple, blue, or slate gray, depending on which way the stone is turned. rough tanzanite While tanzanite's most desirable color as a 'gemmy' stone (to be set) is a deep blue to violet-blue, the stone also frequently comes in shades of lavender, lilac and periwinkle blue. Surprisingly, almost all tanzanite comes out of the ground a gray to root beer brown color. Although some stones found on the surface are purple-blue because of the heat of the equatorial sun, most tanzanite -- like many other gems -- is heat-treated to bring out the deeper, more desirable violet-blue color. This 'artificial' process merely continues the organic color treatment that tanzanite underwent millions of years ago while still under ground. Tanzanite is found almost entirely in Tanzania. Millions of years ago, metamorphous slates, gneiss stone and quartzites shaped impressive flat insular mountains, now known as the Merelani Hills on the wide planes near Mount Kilimanjaro and Tanzania's border with Kenya. It is in the core of these unusual rises that tanzanite is mined. independent miners in merelani, tanzania  photo: professional jeweler Tanzania remains the primary commercial source of tanzanite, a condition seen as both a blessing and a curse. This is because the supply of 'one locality' stones like tanzanite is particularly vulnerable: the deposit can run out (as was the rumor about tanzanite a few years ago) or the volatile politics of the area can interrupt the flow of stones for indefinite periods (also driving up prices). For instance, in 1998, supplies ground to a halt due to flooding, while cave-ins took many lives and security breaches at the mine sites escalated. Very small deposits of tanzanite have been found in Kenya, but have not been considered large enough for commercial purposes until recently. With tanzanite's ongoing popularity even these small deposits are now being mined.