Natural Gemstones - Loose Precious & Semi Precious Gemstones

Russia is still the number one from the mines of the Urals was available on the market. Since the Russian occurrence were thought to be exhausted for some time, the interest in the unique colour miracle decreased – especially since Alexandrites from other mines hardly ever displayed the coveted colour change. But the situation changed dramatically when in the year 1987 Alexandrites were discovered in a place called Hematita in Brazil. The Brazilian Alexandrite convinced both in a distinctive colour change and in good clarity and colour. Thus the somewhat dulled image of the miraculous stone received another boost. The colour is admittedly not as strong a green as that of Russian Alexandrite, but the colour change is clearly discernible. Today Hematita is one of the economically most important occurrences for Alexandrite. Now and then even an Alexandrite with chattoyance effect is discovered there, something which has not happened with Russian Alexandrites so far. Alexandrites do also exist in Sri Lanka, but these stones differ from the highly estimated Russian ones by a slightly different shade of colour: in daylight they appear blue-green, and in artificial light they will change to reddish purple or deep purple. In Tunduru as well as in India, Burma, Tasmania and Zimbabwe Alexandrite is also found. Thus this stone still is considered a rarity, but specialised gemstone dealers do in fact carry it – especially since the improved trade relationships between Russia and the rest of the world have brought about also a better supply of Russian Alexandrites to the market.

Sources

Sri Lanka and Brazil are the two major producers.   Alexandrite is also found in Madagascar, Tanzania, India, Sri Lanka, and Russia.