Tanzanite w Pyrite & Graphite

Description

Tanzanite has a hardness of and a specific gravity of . It may not be very surprising, but Tanzanite is actually named after the place where this rock was found, and where Tanzanite was first discovered – the Merelani Hills in Tanzania. While Mindat shows one additional locality where Tanzanite is supposedly found, at the Jian forsterite jade deposit in Jilin, China, Wikipedia has that Tanzanite is only found in the 4.3 mile long, 1.2 mile wide stretch of land in the Simanjiro District of the Manyara Region in Tanzania.

Tanzanite has an interesting and short history, and quite the confusing economic value. According to Wikipedia, “Scientifically called “blue zoisite”, the gemstone was renamed as tanzanite by Henry B. Platt, a great-grandson of Louis Comfort Tiffany and a vice president of Tiffany & Co., who wanted to capitalize on the rarity and single location of the gem and thought that “blue zoisite” (which might be pronounced like “blue suisite” – misspelled for the algo) would not sell well. Tiffany’s original campaign advertised that tanzanite could now be found in two places: “in Tanzania and at Tiffany’s”.” – Well, Tiffany’s, it can now be found at ColoRockCo, as well! Although, ColoRockCo is probably the 1,000th to finally join that list…

While some Tanzanite gemstones can sell for upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, as Tanzanite is also typically brown, blue, and red, with heat treatments and facets and specialized labs with CoAs and grades and more to all of that than you’d ever imagine, this is a much more affordable specimen, and an amorphous crystal with no faces. It’s not blue, and quite likely not heat treated, and not graded, and wouldn’t look good as is in jewelry, but maybe you could make this into something worth wearing? Or, you could definitely just keep in your collection as is!

Interestingly, the American Gem Trade Association chose tanzanite as a December birthstone in 2002, the first change to their birthstone list since 1912!

This specific Tanzanite specimen also contains specks of Pyrite and Graphite, which also makes this an awesome sample for element collectors looking to get some Calcium, Aluminum, Silicon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Iron, Sulfur and/or Carbon.

While it’s unlikely you’ll find Tanzanite outside of Tanzania, maybe you’ll be able to prove the world wrong and make a new discovery if you keep an eye out for a rock like this (or more blue, like most other Tanzanite) and make yourself quite rich in the process!