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 Post subject: Fake minerals
PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:19 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:56 am
Posts: 1284
I thought this was lacking the synthetics and treatments forum:

http://www.fakeminerals.com/

http://www.mindat.org/msgboard-55.html

http://www.the-vug.com/vug/vugfakes.html

http://luizmenezes.com.br/category/mine ... e-fraudes/

http://www.geoforum.fr/index.php?showtopic=1471

http://thecrystalminer.com/index.php?op ... wordpress/


Interestingly enough, the Vug website mention synthetic zircon (at the very end of the page). I wonder if that is really synthetic zircon or some other kind of synthetic compound being sold for zircon?


Here's an interesting list of gemstone treatments (in french language):

http://www.gemmology.be/le-monde-des-gemmes/traitement

ps: you can use the translation tool of your navigator (it's somewhere under the address bar)

Concerning mineral specimens, beware of glued crystals.
Some will use glue, oiling or polishing to repair broken/scratched/cracked crystals.
But its also happens that an aesthetic specimen sold for big money turns out to be a complete make up:
some will glue loose crystals on an empty matrix, or some will glue extra crystals onto a nice mineral specimen (which already has its own crystallisations) so to make it even more appealing.
The loupe will help spotting such forgery, but if it was performed meticulously this can be very hard to spot (also note that despite many glues are UV reactive and acetone soluble, some glues are not).


Last edited by cascaillou on Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Fake minerals
PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:17 pm 
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Location: USA
Those are not zircon but rather CZ crystals, or atleast they appear to be.

Zircon has been synthesized in Russia decades ago but it is not and never has been on the market that I am aware of. A dealer on Ebay was selling supposedly original Russian lab grown zircon crystals but they were merely syn. spinel crystals instead.

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 Post subject: Re: Fake minerals
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:47 am 
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Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:46 pm
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Location: HNL, BKK, MADA
Many pros have lost face and money buying glued demantoid specimen from Madagascar. They've gotten much better at it....


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 Post subject: Re: Fake minerals
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:31 am 
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Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:56 am
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Yeh, quite a few very convincing collages can be seen in big mineral shows.

crystals glued on rock, on calcite, on dolomite, on albite or orthoclase, on baryte, on siderite, on quartz, or even glued on some reconstructed man-made matrix, crystals glued on other crystals, and so on...


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