Hi,
I had a 100kg of “mine run” emerald delivered back in 2000 and have thinned it down over the years to a few bags of nicely coloured green opaque beryl and some nice emerald crystals (for want of a better description).
The stuff I have sorted out is good for cabbing but amongst it all I found this single piece of blue material, it is around 40mm x 20mm x 6mm thick and is a colour I have not seen before if it is Aqua.
The bag of material was sourced from brazil and I wondered if anyone else had seen aqua of this colour before or if it is likely/could be something else.
Cheers
Paul
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I’m wondering if it might be a Paraiba (though that’s a tourmaline), but they are rare & originally sourced from Brazil. They are known for their “electric” blues, greens, & even purples.
Everyone seems to want the ones from Brazil instead of W. Africa, but they also want transparent stones despite the country of origin. Still, it might be worth getting it tested. Just a guess….
When I see that color my mind immediately goes to copper carbonate or silicate… first guess might be chrysoprase or chrysocolla.
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Seems way more likely than pariba tourmaline
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see if your stone will scratch glass or quartz… tourmalines have mohs hardness of 7 to 7.5… should easily scratch ordinary pane glass, barely scratch quartz…
chrysocolla, azurite, and other blue copper minerals are usually much softer…although high silica chrysocolla can be as hard as 7… Specific gravity of tourmalines are 3 to 3.5, chrysocolla is about 2 with a range of 1.9 to 2.3… these are easy tests that can be done at home and don’t require any special equipment except for a sensitive balance scale to weigh your stone in air and in water.
could be tourmaline…chrysoprase would be pretty unusual for a neon blue…chrysocolla possible… easy home tests, mohs hardness and specific gravity should help a lot.
my post is months later… I hope that you’ve already found out what it is… if so, please let us know… it’s a very interesting and showy piece of mineral…
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