Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 6:35 am Posts: 37 Location: Bangkok, Thailand
GIA has written an interesting piece on turquoise from China's Hubei Province. What makes the turquoise so intriguing is the presence of uranium inclusions. The authors state that although exposure to these levels of radiation is not considered significant, breathing dust that might be created during cutting should be avoided. I wonder how many gem cutters in Bangkok are aware of it.
hi jj, that's a good question concerning the bangkok cutters awareness of the possibility of being exposed to the dust while cutting the new find of chinese turquoise. there was a discussion under "turquoise prices" in the appraisal section of the forum of the GIA research and uranium inclusions found in chinese turquoise yesterday.
torbernite is a strongly radioactive hydrated copper-uranium phosphate...very nice deep green crystals.
It is closely related to autunite (which has calcium instead of copper) and uranocircite (with baryum) , those two show a vivid fluorescent yellow color, both strongly radioactive too.
These might slowly dehydrate and turn into meta-torbernite, meta-autunite and meta-uranocircite respectively.
Uranium (and thorium) minerals are deadly flowers, they require special handling and storage precautions.
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