Where to Sell Tanzanite | High Price Purchase | JEWEL CAFE

Even though tanzanite’s history is significantly shorter compared to other gemstones, but it is an exquisite gemstone with blue color of high transparency which is even comparable to sapphire. In 1960, the mining for zoisite begun in Tanzania, a country in East Africa. Later in 1967, this blue zoisite was named “tanzanite” based on its producing country by Henry Platt which is the CEO of Tiffany & Co. at that time. It gradually became widely known through the marketing by the company. The production start to increase at 1989, and due to its affordable price, it is widely distributed throughout the world market.

On the other hand, towards the end of 1960s, the production of tsavorite (green grossular garnet) started in Kenya. Other than that, the East Africa region also produce gemstones like fancy sapphire, ruby, emerald and rhodolite garnet. Therefore, East Africa region is considered as the new yet significant gemstones mining spot in 21st century for Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. Tanzanite’s purplish blue makes it an appealing gemstone to many. As differ to the cobalt blue of sapphire, tanzanite’s blue with slight red hue included allowed it to be expressed as ultramarine color. Furthermore, tanzanite also possesses pleochroism property. Pleochroism is an optical phenomenon where an object will have different color when observed at different angles.

As for tanzanite, color of blue, indigo blue and reddish brown can be seen under different angles. When we are talking about blue gemstone, sapphire will be the first that comes to mind. There are also other blue gemstones like fancy blue diamond, indicolite (blue tourmaline), aquamarine, lapis lazuli, turquoise and more. Among these blue gemstones after facet cut, tanzanite has deep blue color and high transparency which is even comparable to sapphire. On top of that, its price is significantly cheaper compared to sapphire. However, the hardness of tanzanite in term of Mohs scale is around 6 – 7, its hardness and durability are hardly acceptable when compared to the baseline of 7 which is the hardness of crystal. Which is why, the demand is lesser compared to sapphire, and its price tend to be lower.