" Tourmalines; Mother Natures Rainbow "" Tourmalines; Mother Natures Rainbow "" Tourmalines; Mother Natures Rainbow "

" Tourmalines; Mother Natures Rainbow "

Tourmaline, from the Singhalese tourmali, mea ning mixed stone. It is widespread in metamorp

hic, igneous and sedimentary rocks.

5 13Subgroups and members :- Alkali Deficient Tourmaline subgroup : Foitite, M

agnesiofoitite, Rossmanite Calcic Tourmaline subgroup : Liddicoatite, Uvite,

Feruvite Ferric Tourmaline subgroup : Buergerite, Povond

raite Lithian Tourmaline subgroup : Olenite, Elbaite

Sodic Tourmaline subgroup : Dravite, Schorl, Chromdravite

The general formula for tourmaline is : WX3

Y6

(BO3

)3

Si6

O18

(O,OH,F)4

where: W = Ca, K, Na X = Al, Fe2+, Li, Mn2+ Y = Al, Cr3+, Fe3+

• Gem variety falls under the subgroup of tourmalines

known as ELBITE [Na(Li, Al) 3Al6

(BO3

)3

Si6

O18

(OH)4

].

• Gem Elbaite is, however, nearly restricted to p -egmatites. Literally thousands of tourmaline bea

ring pegmatites are known; only a few hundred a pparently contain gem quality material in minea

ble quantities. • The principle commercial source is Brazil . Impo

rtant other sources are the U.S. (Maine and S. Ca lifornia), U.S.S.R ., Sri Lanka , Burma , Madagascar

, Tanzania , and Afghanistan.

TOURMALINE ACHROITE, RUBELLITE, INDICOLITE,

VERDELITE, AND WATERMELON

http://www.cigem.ca/414 # 4.html SCRL

• Largest producer of gem tou rmaline. All colors. Most mines

in the SSSSS SS S SSSS S SSSSS ; the most prolific and famous p

egmatite mines are Cruzeiro

, Galconda , Virgem da Lapa a nd Jonas (Itatiaia).

• Some of the finest red ("Cra nberry") tourmaline was disco

vered at the Jonas mine in 197 8 .

• Recently discovered deposit in the State of Paraiba has yiel

ded unusually vivid purples,bl ues and greens. Chromophore

in some of these is copper , an d most contain a fairly high go

ld content. These are some of the most expensive tourmalin

es on the market, commandin g prices that were previously

unheard of for tourmaline

BRAZILS SSSSSS SSSSS

Minas Gerais State

A very rar e combina

tion, elbai te tourmal

ine on sce ptered qu

artz. From Minas Ger

ais, Brazil.

A huge green tourmaline with basal termination from one of the most prolific mines in the world, the Cruzeiro Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Size 5x5x3-1/2 inches. Evaluation on a custom-made base worth $12,500!

Mining Paraíba tourmaline is difficult, accomplis hed mostly by hand with wedges, sledge hamme

rs and occasionally dynamite, though the latter i s discouraged because it can damage the crysta

ls.

Arríba, Paraíba

• tantalizing blue and- blue green tourmaline

s from Paraíba (discov ered in 1989), Brazil.

• rare tourmalines, kn - own mineralo gically

as "cuprian elbaites,"

The famous Jonas Mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil also produced a few nice gemmy watermelon elbaites in addition to the cranberry xls.

A doubly-terminated cranberry rubellite xl from the famous Jonas Mine, Itatiaia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Note the doubly-terminated attached quartz xl.

Black dravite tourmaline crystal from Brumado,Bahia, Brazil. This larger xl grew from multiple seed xls, each being doubly- terminated.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

• Pala District, San Diego County.

• Bicolored crystals common; fine pinks.

• - Mined extensively from 1900 1912; pinks and re ds favored by Chinese for carvings and other orna

mental uses. Market all but evaporated with the co llapse of the Manchu dynasty in 1912.

MAINE

• Some mines have recently reopened and are bei ng worked on a fairly large scale.

• Near Newry (1970's) and Paris (since mid 1800's ) Newry deposit noted for watermelon, red and ap

- ple green crystals; blues usually too dark to cut.

• Some very large crystals ("tourmaline logs") disc overed as well; highly prized as mineral specimens

.

UNITED STATES

China’s Dowager Empress was wild about San Diego’s tourmalines. Her love of this gem triggered the California boom in the early 1900s.

http://www.palagems.com/california_gem_mining.htm

The Himalaya Mine is famous for the beautiful elbaite, rubellite and verdelite tourmaline gemstones and associated combinations which have been mined there for many years. Other minerals found at the mine include spessartite garnet, bladed albite clusters, etched feldspar crystals, stibiotantalite,topaz, morganite beryl, smoky quartz, clear quartz, lepidolite balls and clusters, and combinations of these minerals.

The Himalaya Mine is located a few miles northwest of Mesa Grande, San Diego County, California. The Himalaya Mine is a world famous locality but was not open to collectors. The current "owners" apparently are letting people up to collect for a fee or investment.

The Himalaya Mine SSSSS, ’

st producer of tour maline, ca. 1900.

Bi-colored tourmaline with attached lepidolite mica from the Himalaya mine.

John Sinkankas, ex amines tailings fro

m the Himalaya Mi ne for tourmaline s

pecimens.

Searching for tourmaline-bearing pegmatite at the Tourmaline Queen mine, ca. 1975.

http://www.palagems.com/tourmaline_queen.htm

The Tourmaline Queen Mine located in Pala, San Diego County, California, has always ins

pired mineral collectors, high graders and g eologists.

It was originally claimed by Frank Salmons a nd Associates in March, 1 9 0 3 . Explorat ory work yielded some 8 0 pounds of gem

tourmaline. The Queen immediately became the leading

producer of tourmaline in the Pala district d uring the period 1904 through 1914.

With the collapse of the major Chinese mark et for tourmaline, due to the 1 9 1 1 over

throw of the Imperial government, the mine s soon became uneconomical.

From about 1 9 1 4 to 1 9 7 1 , the Que en was worked intermittently by high grader

s, with limited success.

1972Themainaditatt he Tour mal i ne Queen mi ne, ci r ca

vvvv vv vvv vvvvvv v vvvv vvvvvvv vvv v vvv v vvv vvvvv.

Drilling is essential. Here, John McLean and José Montes use a pneumatic jack leg, used to support the drill during drilling.

A clay pocket exposed in the pegmatite.

A tourmaline crystal coated with clay in a just-exposed pocket.

Another fine "blue cap" on quartz specimen from the find at the Tourmaline Queen in the early 70's.

Tourmaline in quartz. Crystals are 2.5 x 3 inches; overall size is 9 x 5 inches.

An unusual pair of tourmaline crystals;the individual crystals are approx. 2.5 x 5 inches each. This tourmaline group measures

approximately 5 x 3.5 inches.

Tourmaline and cleavelandite whichmeasures approx. 5 x 2.5 inches.

The "Candelabra” one of the most beautifu l tourmaline specimens ever discovered fr

om the Tourmaline Queen Mine , Pala, CALI FORNIA.

The Blue-Berry Mine, Poland, Maine, USA.

http://members.aol.com/Gemelbaite/BerryGemMine3.html

WATERMELON TOURMALINE, NEWRY, MAINE

7.80 carats, US$ 3,000

http://www.rockhounds.com/rockgem/articles/pegmatites.html

http://www.dunton.org/archive/DuntonMine/dunton_mine.gif

In 1972, the Dutton Mine in Newry, Maine established itself as one of the largest finds on record ever and for a brief period of time, became a world-source of superior quality red and green tourmaline.

MOUNT MICA TOURMALINE MINE, MAINE

http://www.megalink.net/~mtmica/History_/history_.htmlDiscovered in 1820

Mining Today at Mount Mica

Probing the gem bearing zone

AFGHANISTAN

Tourmaline fro m Nuristan, Ku

mar Province, A fghanistan is fo

und in many col ors and shades.

16 Very Large, Green Tourmaline Crystals

Green Tourmaline Crystals

Pink tourmaline crystals grown in quartz crys tals (2 1/2" X 1 1/2"). Found in Nuristan, Afgh

anistan. Priced at $160.00.

This small tourmaline crystal lot weighs 320ct.

White and Light Pink Tourmaline

This beautiful 9.66 car at Tourmaline from N

uristan, Afghanistan. I t is priced at $590.00

per carat.

Pink Tourmaline Necklace

A brand new deposit of red tourmaline from Nigeria. This stone will probably be the hot new material at the Tucson Gem Show in `99. Expect to see large quantities of this gem in all price ranges and qualities at the show. Approximately 1/3 of the deposit went to Germany, 1/3 to Bangkok and 1/3 to the United States. What is unusual about this material is that it is clean and not irradiated.

NIGERIA

Tourmaline deposit near Ibadan, Nige

ria

In the summer of 1998 a new tourma line depositwas discovered in a farm ing area 25 miles from the city of Iba

dan, Nigeria, near the border with Be nin. Gem dealers have noted that thi

s is one of the finestdiscoveries of to urmaline in many years. The deposit

is alluvial in nature, many of the tour maline crystals have a frosted skin r

esulting from natural abrasion and w eathering. Other crystals have sharp

terminations indicating that they haSS SSS SSSSSSSS SSS SSSS SSSSS SSSSSSSS SSS SSSSSSSS S SSS SSSSS SSS. er a relatively shallow overburden of

soil (aboutsix feet), and the deposit stretched for about 1000 meters. A fl

ood of miners rapidly moved into the area and removed over 1,000 kilogr ams of fine tourmaline. Because this

source is largely worked out, the dep ressed price of these fine tourmaline

s is not likely to persist.

The worn tourmaline c rystals show very goo

d clarity and range in color from pale pink, t

o raspberry pink, to or angish pink, to burgun

dy red. Some of the cr ystals show distinct co

SSSSSSS SSS SSSSSSS. able colors, combined with the remarkable cl arity and size of the ro

ugh gem material, hav e made this tourmalin e a hit with gemstone

dealers and the public SSSSSSS SS SSS SSSSS .

supply of material, av erage prices for facete

d stones at the 1998 T ucson gem and miner

al shows were as low a SSS SSSS6 0 1 00

t.

Bright Emerald Cut, 3.83 ct., 11.0 x 7.5 x 6.7 mm, VS, $287.25

Curved Triangular Brilliant Cut, 5.66 ct., VVS, 12.5 x 12.5 x 7.5 mm, $311.30

Tourmaline Gem Mines of the Malkhany Region of the Buryat Republic, CIR (Siberia)

Standing on top of the Moss pegmatite looking over the Taiga of the Malkhany Region of Siberia

http://www.mtlilygems.com/mineinfo/mulkinfo.html

•Malkhany pegmatites were discovered only recently. During the 1970's Russian geologists exploring the region for sources of rare earth metals discovered these gem pegmatites.

•The pegmatite consists of a rather large lenticular body approximately 300 meters in diameter and nearly 50 meters in thickness. This pegmatite contains many gem pockets lined with fine pink to red tourmaline crystals.

•These pockets range in size from 0.5 to 2 meters in diameter.

The heart of the Moss Mine pegmatite. The

bulldozer is removing some of the barren pe

gmatite boulders. The pegmatite body is bei

SS S SS S S2 0 ter thick bench, drillin

g and blasting only s mall areas at a time. T

he unworked portionSSSSSSS SSSS SSS SSSS SS

the right. In the lower right, amongst the pr

y bars and drill steel, have been found man

y pockets containing beautiful pink tourmal

ine crystals.

The miners overlooking some of their finds. V aleri, far right, is a trained geologist, Misha, o

n the far left, was a Russian military helicopt er pilot.

Tourmaline crystals from one of the Moss Mine gem pockets. As is the case for many pegmatites, only 5 to 10 percent of the material is suitable for faceting.

A 2.2 carats pink tourmaline (Curved triangular brilliant cut) from the Moss Mine set in an 18kt gold slider with diamond accent stones.

Nine-of-Diamonds Cut, 1.40 ct., VVS, 8.8 x 5.5 x 3.9 mm, $384.00

Prelude Cut, 1.87 ct., SI1, 8.9 x 8.9 x 5.2 mm, $140.25