Paraiba Tourmaline
About Paraiba Tourmaline
An intensely neon blue to green tourmaline colored by copper and manganese. It was discovered in the late 1980s in the Brazilian state of Paraiba after years of digging by Heitor Dimas Barbosa. The glowing colors caused a sensation at the 1989 Tucson gem show. Similar copper bearing tourmaline was later found in Nigeria and Mozambique. Top Brazilian stones are among the most valuable colored gems per carat. Most are small, rarely over a few carats.
Related Gemstones
Emerald
Cleopatra mined emeralds in Egypt 4,000 years ago - her mines were lost for centuries. The...
Amethyst
Once as valuable as diamonds until massive deposits were found in Brazil in the 1800s. The...
Topaz
Pure topaz is colorless - the various colors come from impurities or treatments. Imperial ...
Tanzanite
Found in only one place on Earth - a 7 square km area near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. ...