Im currently mining near Lemshuku Area( Tanzania ) , i have come across alot of diopside along the way and can anyone tell me if its valueble and if so what is the price
Hi there,
So the value of diopside or green tourmaline (I highly doubt this looks like tourmaline) but unless gemological tests are conducted it will be difficult to tell for sure, is usually determined by the way it is cut. If the rough is soft (breaks easily during cutting) then the rough cannot be used for anything but specimen pieces. So at Navneet Gems suggests two things: 1) test the stone what species it is, 2) try to cut, cab, tunble, bead a few pieces and see the finished stones there. We heard that the Tanzania government has banned raw exports of tanzanite so it means there are alot of cutting places in Tanzanite with some basic experienced cutters.
Hope that helps
Navneet Gems
This certainly does not look like tourmaline, if it were, you would probably be seeing some characteristic tourmaline crystal shapes. It is cab grade material. That said, if it is diopside, some large diopside cabs (25x30 to 30x40) are going for about $25 each on Etsy, that that material is larger than what you picture.
Hi Navneet,
Thanks for the advice. I will surely take it for tests to see the type of stone im mining. Im not sure if its official news on the exports
Hi royjohn,
Thanks for the advice
Hi yes fully offices on tanzanite I was GEm A conference in London in November and met a lovely lady there who has closed her tanzanite mine in Tanzania die to government stopping export of tanzanite. She said the gutters in Tanzania are not good enough yet and needed her workers from Kenya to come in but government is making it so difficult she has closed her mine. She expects price of tanzanite to go up because of this
Interesting information. But yes you are absolutely right on this. The Tanzanite mines has been closed, one our of Indian fellows is Jail as the government changed and caused huge trouble for the mines. The tanzanian government thought they can give jobs to the local people by making them trained cutters, but what they dont realize is that cutting is a skill that is difficult to train, but mostly its inside you or not. Need delicate hands and very smart confident person with experience. We stopped selling tanzanite at Navneet Gems because of the same reason, its very difficult to get tanzanite nowadays from the mines. But there is enough material for next 2-3 years to go without much price increase. But you never know in this gemstone trade.
Navneet
Would really appreciate some advice on a green tourmaline I recently purchased from Pakistan (it’s afgan tourmaline) I paid $600 with shipping (dhl) and I thought it was a good price, clean stone with nice cut and colour 5.5ct the video they sent was done in daylight so the stone looked slightly lighter than in real life and of course much livelier. How ever my gem dealer in Malaysia reckons the stone is around $15-25 a carat and I paid way over! Yet checking some trade accounts in the U.K. they have similar stones in an emerald cut that look much darker for around £1200! So I’m really confused about this stone, if I paid way over or I paid decent money for it! Really would appreciate your thoughts and feed back Uploading… the first picture is taken from a screen shot of the sellers video., I couldn’t upload the video. The second is from the back (same screen shot) the third picture is from my gem light box photo and I would say is more accurate colour (although without light it is darker. The last picture with the pricing are the ones I saw for sale on a Uk trade website (these prices are their retail prices though.) the stone I have looks much better than these.
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Hi there!
Well see, the internet provides a great different variety of people, race, quality, color, origin, authenticity. So what you see on ebay may not be all very authentic. Sometimes they sell on ebay junk, and we wrote an article on ebay gemstones here and you must read it. Are gemstones on ebay real and worth buying?
Moreover, it would be good if you can send us a photo of the stone to determine a stone, but if its a good color, clean tourmaline 5.50 carat then certainly worth $600. For sure, no doubt. Dont worry about it. We are wholesaling it for 15+ years now from our factory.
You can also contact me directly if you want any help with marketing gemstones, selling buying etc, however work doesnt allow me to communicate too much, but love the gem society forums.
Thanks
Navneet
Navneet Gems