January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: Tucson
PostPosted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:19 am 
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All,

Starting the third day in Tucson. Have seen some interesting things and scouting for more. Will be doing some work with Colored Stone so if anyone is out here and has a newsworthy item please let me know and I will try to get by and see you. Interesting stuff: Give me a call: 413.841.0276

Update: Mahenge Spinel

Have seen quite a bit of the new Mahenge spinel from the big crystals discovered in August. Truly hot pink to orangy-pink and available, would you believe in suites? So far asking prices seem extremely high. Will be interesting to see what the major shows bring.

I will do a blog later, stay tuned.

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson
PostPosted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:55 pm 
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Hello Richard,

I was wondering what the situation was with Orange Spessertite since the new Discoveries in (I beleive) Madagascar and Tanzania?

Also what is the vote on news on Mozambique copper bearing tourmaline and have they found anything out about the Red labradorite and and andesine?

Regards,
Maurice

Richard W. Wise wrote:
All,

Starting the third day in Tucson. Have seen some interesting things and scouting for more. Will be doing some work with Colored Stone so if anyone is out here and has a newsworthy item please let me know and I will try to get by and see you. Interesting stuff: Give me a call: 413.841.0276

Update: Mahenge Spinel

Have seen quite a bit of the new Mahenge spinel from the big crystals discovered in August. Truly hot pink to orangy-pink and available, would you believe in suites? So far asking prices seem extremely high. Will be interesting to see what the major shows bring.

I will do a blog later, stay tuned.

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Maurice


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:30 am 
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Location: Anywhere the gems are....
The new spessartite find is in Kenya, not Tanzania. It is being mined in a field, at the moment production has ceased as maasai warriors killed a bunch of workers there during the recent turmoils.
The material is very nice stuff, it has been expensive in Kenya and prices have risen because there are no buyers in kenya (go figure, african logic) the examples from this location that I have seen here seem to go as high as 250 dollars US per gram. it is alot.....


I mentioned in a previous post dedicated to andesine that 90 percent of new production comes from a relitavely new find in southern india. check out the post on andesine in this section. the material is most often passed off as 'congo' material.

The price of Cuprian Elbaite tourmaline seems to have been set steady during the Bangkok gem show, and prices from 600 - 2500 per carat for good 2 -7 carat stones seems to be the norm, not much available under that. Tucson seems to be holding the price at that point or fairly close, good stones are hard to come across there are a heck of alot of average coloured stones or stones with a bright light blue that isn't quite there in terms of paraiba, but will cert as such are easy to see, I feel these will go down in price later whereas the fine coloured examples will continue to rise.

Hope that helps :)

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:03 am 
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Thanks Mick,

Do you know where in Kenya?

RW

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 2:54 am 
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Is THIS the new Spessartite you are talking about? The color! :shock:


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 Post subject: Mahenge spinel
PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:19 am 
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Where can I get detailed information on this August discovery of Mahenge spinel?

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 Post subject: Re: Mahenge spinel
PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:25 am 
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davegimchee wrote:
Where can I get detailed information on this August discovery of Mahenge spinel?



Swala Gem Traders (would guess closest to the source of the three) had a nice page on it... now gone. An older thread traces some details: HERE.

Multicolour (most details)

Pala citing the National Jeweler(authoritative secondary, as usual)

;)


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:07 am 
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AnA,
Hard to say about anything posted on Fleabay but probably as I have not heard of more than one Kenyan source but would appreciate knowing more about that source.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:04 pm 
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Richard W. Wise wrote:
AnA,
Hard to say about anything posted on Fleabay...


Hm... I would like to believe that David Weinberg's 'Multicolour' is a bit more credible then FleaBay. But no more specific detail about those grnets so far... nowhere I can reach it.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:01 pm 
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Dear Richard,

I've heard in November 2007, few days after my return from the October expedition to Kenya and Tanzania I had with Richard Hughes, about a new spessartite deposit producing "beautiful stones" near Sonjo and Loliondo in northern Tanzania just near the Serengeti.

May be this is the information you were asking about. It is a Massai area located near the border with Kenya. I've not heard about any new deposit in Kenya, but I will enquiry about... It is possible that the deposit is in fact on both sides of the Kenya/Tanzania border...

Besides spinels and spessartite there are some other interesting news about Tanzania: I was recently informed about a ruby and blue/purple sapphire rush at the end of November in central Tanzania in the south east of Dodoma. Around 600 people moved to this new area. One of my local friends spent December there to get some stones. I've so far not seen the stones but some facetable material was told me to have been found.

Anyway don't jump in the next plane to the Serengeti or Dodoma, these information are not yet 100% confirmed. I hope nevertheless to get more details in the next few days...

What about the Mahenge spinels in Tucson? Did you saw some nice stones? The stones I saw in Mahenge and Arusha last October were very pretty...

All the best,

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The views expressed here are V. Pardieu’s opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of GIA Laboratory Bangkok (http://www.giathai.net)where he is an employee since Dec 2008.


Last edited by vincent pardieu on Wed May 07, 2008 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:18 pm 
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Here's a new spessartite rough (1.1 grams) from Tanzania that I bought in Tucson earlier this week. This is the pure color - no photoshop or retouching. I'm still kicking myself for not buying the flawless 3 gram rough that saw the first day, which sold soon afterwards.

Image

Regards,
Gary


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:03 pm 
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I just saw a 80 ct chrome tourmaline rough. Well shaped could cut maybe 25 to 30 ct. stone.

A lot of the rough is the same material I have seen the past few years, but a few new things here and there.

When I get home a post some photo's on my site of what I picked up and some general interest photos from the show.

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:43 am 
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Dear All,

I confirm that the spessartite garnet was (and is still...) found in northern Tanzania (the closest major village is called Loliondo - not too far from the Serengeti).

We've put a gem online which can serve as a color sample:
ref7772 at http://www.swalagemtraders.com/search-gems/
or
http://www.swalagemtraders.com/search-gems/new-gems.php

A "lot" (relative with rather rare gems) of rough is coming out but as often the case with spessartites, the bigger pieces are scare. The color is very nice and a lot of it is included (which we don't buy).

Nice material, really.

Enjoy :D

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visit us at www.swalagemtraders.com


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:19 pm 
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Eric and Vincent,

I was talking to someone at New Era and they told me the spessartite strike was near Dodoma straddling the Kenya-Tanzaina border but with most of the area on the Tanzania side. Does this make sense? Could there be two new locations?

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:40 pm 
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Hi Richard,

No, there was only one find, 7 kilometers away from the Kenyan border, on the Tanzanian side. Quite far away from Dodoma.

Enjoy Tuscon!

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visit us at www.swalagemtraders.com


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