Gemscapes Blog

Rare and beautiful, with a vivid and intense green hue, chrome tourmaline is one of only two natural gems that closely resemble the esteemed emerald. Chrome tourmaline is the name given to the emerald green variety of dravite tourmaline from East Africa. Ours has come from Tanzania. It’s vivid green hue is produced by trace amounts of chromium and vanadium atoms within the crystal; these are the same elements that produce the pure green colors in emeralds and tsavorite garnets. Like emerald and tsavorite garnet, fine chrome tourmaline is a visually pure “forest” green with slightly yellowish to bluish secondary hues. The  best examples of chrome tourmalines resemble fine emeralds and tsavorite garnets. Chrome tourmalines are often found associated with the deposits of tsavorite garnets, though the miners focus on the tsavorites for their higher market value.

3.87 carat Chrome Tourmaline - AVAILABLE

5.57 carat Chrome Tourmaline - AVAILABLE

Good, large crystals of chrome tourmaline are very rare because of the tendency of the gem to appear nearly opaque in larger sized specimens. The opaque appearance is because chrome tourmaline tends to have a grey or black overtone. Chrome tourmaline is very difficult to buy in the raw state because transmitted light through the rough gives the appearance of open color when in fact the color may be muted by the darker overtones. Large crystals, with good, clear color, and no dark overtones of grey or black, that are also suitable for faceting or carving are extremely rare. Gemscapes has been incredibly lucky with our supplier in Tanzania as we’ve had at least seven very large crystals come to us within the last year. Two are sold pieces, two are available, two are in pre-form stage, and 1 has just arrived and is still in rough form. “Chrome tourmaline is quite rare generally, and particularly rare in sizes over one carat. A stone of fine quality over one carat is very rare. Therefore, the collector should expect a large percentage increase in the price of stones in carat-plus sizes. The next jump in rarity occurs at five carats. Stones of fine quality above ten carats are extremely rare, so rare in fact that I have never seen one.”  (as quoted from Richard W. Wise on the website: Ganoksin, The Gem and Jewelry World’s foremost Resource on the Internet) Caring for your chrome tourmaline: use of ultrasonic cleaners is generally safe; use of a steamer is not safe and not recommended. The best way to care for a chrome tourmaline is to clean it with warm, soapy water. Avoid exposing it to heat or acids.

Tags: chrome tourmaline, gem carving, gem rough, gems, gemscapes.com, learn, tanzania, website

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 12:24 pm and is filed under descriptions, gems, gemstones, learn, rough, sold stone, tanzania, unique, website. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.