FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Cascavel1]

I'm curious to know how many of you, if any, have seen "natural" rough Alexandrite crystals from the Itaitinga mine, Hematita? I've done a bit of browsing on the web to see if I could find any similar examples to one I purchased back in 1994 while staying in Rio.
I attached a photo of it in natural light as well as synthetic light so you can see the nice color change. At the time I had gone there to guy cut stones from the same mine and this was a little bonus I was able to aquire.

[Cascavel1]

Didn't know how to post both images so here is the crystal in synthetic light.

[supertxango]

Hi, nice Chrysoberyl!

You can include up to 15 photos or images within each message. To see how to add photos and how to include up to 15 photos/images in a single message follow this link

Regards

[James Catmur]

To make it even easier, look at Step 4 on that page!

James

[Cascavel1]

Thanks for the info.

[Luiz Menezes]

This mine was object of a tough fight for its ownership on the mid 1980's and finally came to the hands of a group of investors (one Brazilian, two foreigners); no rough material ever came to the Brazilian market of mineral specimens, the output of the mine was a secrecy and all material found used to be sent to Asia (Hong Kong or Taipei) for cutting; I had one of the best mineral collections in Brazil and I could never find one crystal that I could buy to put on my collection.

[Rodney B Jackson]

Gorgeous specimen. I like the pedestal.

[Cascavel1]

Thanks for in the info Luiz. Very interesting history and that would explain why I can never find other photos of gem quality specimens like this. I was fortunate to visit a gem dealer in Rio back in the early 90's and some how he acquired this one specimen from the mine and was willing to sell it to me. Have never seen another one since then.

Thanks Rodney.

[Tenney Naumer]

Luiz, would this be the same mine that Duarte & Bastos controlled?

[Luiz Menezes]

What I know is that the partners are Roberto Milá, Steve Papas and a chinese guy called Chang; I have no knowledge of these 2 you are mentioning.

[Tenney Naumer]

Hi Luiz, the firm I am referring to is that of Duarte & Bastos, founded in 1989, in Teofilo Otoni. My understanding, which may be far from perfect, was that the early profits were from alexandrite. If you go to flickr and search for Anfilofio Bastos (the brother of one of the partners), you will see what they sell (Filo takes all the photos) -- you will eventually run into the alexandrite stated to be from the Ematita Mine.

However, I also understand (again, quite possibly imperfectly) that the Ematita Mine was mined out some years ago (or possibly closed by IBAMA). Also, again, my understanding was that the color of the material from Ematita was green, with a brown to reddish color change. The material being sold now, in very large sizes (4 to 11 carats) and very clean, is more a bluish/teal with pinkish/magenta color change. However, since they sell mostly internationally to high-value customers who can have the material tested, I do not believe this material to be synthetic. I am only wondering about the provenance.

I am wondering if there was a find of bluish to pinkish/magenta material in eastern Africa, possibly since 2008-2009.

[parrish]

Nice Chrysoberyl. Great color, and it has a lot less cracks than most I have seen, including the ones I have in my collection.

[Cascavel1]