The wonders that the world has and that are still little known are incredible. Gemstones are beautiful stones used in the making of the most varied types of jewelry.
Hidden in the raw nature, the rarest gemstones in the world are coveted and become items of desire if combined with a beautiful design.
Below, meet some of these rarities.
Benitoite
This striking blue stone has only been found near the waters of the San Benito River in California. One of the most striking features is its glowing blue color under a UV light.
grandidierite
This blue-green mineral is found almost exclusively in Madagascar, although the first – and only – faceted specimen was recovered from Sri Lanka. It can transmit blue, green and white colors.
Jeremejevite
First discovered in Siberia in the late XNUMXth century, since then gem-quality crystals of this mineral (large and clear enough to be cut) have only been recovered in limited supplies in Namibia.
Poudreteita
The first traces of the gem were discovered in the mid-60s in the Poudrette quarry in Mont Saint Hilaire, in Quebec, Canada. However, the mineral was not officially recognized as a species until 1987 and was not fully described until 2003.
painite
In 2005, the Guinness Book of Records recognized painite as the rarest gemstone in the world. Discovered in Myanmar by the British mineralogist Arthur CD Pain in the 50's, for years only 2 crystals of the mineral were known on Earth. Today it is no longer as rare as it used to be.
Musgravitis
This mineral was first discovered in 1967 in southern Australia, but has also been found in limited supplies in Greenland, Madagascar and Antarctica. The first specimens really large and pure enough to be cut were not reported until 1993. As of 2005, only 8 specimens of this mineral were known.
Tanzanite
Some say that tanzanite is a thousand times rarer than diamond, being found almost exclusively at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, in limited supplies. It exhibits dramatic color changes that depend on conditions such as the orientation of the crystal and its lighting (more towards blue, purple or red), which are largely due to the presence of vanadium ions.
red beryl
Also known as "bixbite", "red emerald" or "scarlet emerald", it was first described in 1940. The mineral's known distribution is limited to parts of Utah and New Mexico in the United States, and it has been shown to extremely difficult to mine economically. Consequently, prices for this gem can reach up to US$10 (about R$30 at current exchange rates) per carat of cut stone.
Alexandrite
The gem is famous for its peculiar optical property – it can dramatically change color depending on the type of light that falls on it, a change that is independent of the viewing angle of the person observing it. For example, in natural sunlight, the gem appears blue-green, but in incandescent light it appears purple-red. Its color-changing property and its relative scarcity are due to an extremely rare combination of minerals that includes titanium, iron, and chromium.
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