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 Post subject: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 2:09 pm 
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This is a beryl of a different color.
At first I thought this was tourmaline, as I have never seen an emerald in this color.
Nope, RI indicates beryl.
No chromium absorption.
Have y'all ever seen a green beryl this color? If so, from where?
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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 3:03 pm 
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Could the color be from vanadium?

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 3:09 pm 
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uhm.................some clean zambian stuffs...............but it was really many yrs ago...............

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 3:46 pm 
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Yeah, the color works for Zambian, but I've not see any that clean.

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 3:55 pm 
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The Zambian vanadium emeralds on the market years ago were incredibly clean -- to the point many dealers thought they were synthetic. They had a dark, somewhat "sinister" hue compared with Colombian goods but were eventually accepted by the market. I thought of them immediately when I saw the image but the stone looked almost too included :lol:

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 4:09 pm 
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Exactly Rick! Perfect description! :D :lol:
Ciao
Albe'

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 6:39 pm 
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Anyone know the area of Zambia or the specific mine which produced this material?
Conditions of crystallization?


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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 8:11 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Anyone know the area of Zambia or the specific mine which produced this material?
Conditions of crystallization?

Emeralds are found exclusively in the Ndola Rural area of the southern Copperbelt where they are hosted by Muva-age talc schists intruded by tourmaline-and phlogopite-bearing pegmatite bodies, according to a Zambian resources website.

Since I was curious myself I noodled around a bit and found this site which gives fairly detailed geological info and mining history http://emeraldmine.tripod.com/ndola.htm

According to published info Zambian vanadium emerald made a big splash around 1976 and became a specialty of Israeli cutters who fashioned the ultra-clean material into shapes and brilliant makes previously not seen in emerald. At first the market resisted it but eventually manufacturers started using it and big retailers like Tiffany embraced it. Now it appears to be scarce again, replaced by more conventionally-hued Zambian stones colored by both vanadium and chromium mined by Gemfields.

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 10:20 pm 
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=D> =D> =D> Excellent information. Thanks a million!


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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 5:37 pm 
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I have seen beryls of that kind of colour in Madagascar.
Like you, although the seller sold it as emerald, I first thought it was tourmaline ; but then all the specs said beryl.
They have very strange, strong-coloured beryls in Madagascar, blue or green.
I have a very unusual dark blue one, which I brought back from there.


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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:50 pm 
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Love to see a pic of that dark blue one (hint hint)


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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 12:23 am 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Love to see a pic of that dark blue one (hint hint)

Make that TWO of us!

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 4:08 am 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Love to see a pic of that dark blue one (hint hint)

Jason wrote:
Make that TWO of us!


Hi Isi ,

THREE now ...!

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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 5:50 am 
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OK I promise, you'll get it within a few days... Time for me to make different tries under different lights with my small tourist-camera. I am a very poor picture taker !


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 Post subject: Re: Curious beryl
PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 6:09 am 
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OK so here it is. The best I could do (background is supposed to be white !...)

Image

10,99 carats. Concave cut. Normally not my favourite, but in this case it does nicely enlighten the stone.

As you can see the colour is not a pure blue, but contains a greenish tinge. When I bought it I was told this kind of stone is supposed to be heated to remove the green undertone and leave only a dark, deep blue aquamarine, which would be much more valuable. But this stone is too much included with liquid elongated and two-phase inclusions, and wouldn't have stood the heating, or it wouldn't have been worth it. Anyway this is the native untreated colour.

Dichroism is impressive, colourless/dark greenish blue.


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