Tanzanite - Specimen

Locality: Merelani Hills, Simanjiro District, Manyara Region, Tanzania

Description: Tanzanite has only been known since 1967. The most common telling is that a Maasai herder found violet-blue crystals weathering out of the ground in the Merelani Hills of northern Tanzania. He showed them to prospector Manuel d'Souza, who quickly registered mining claims, hoping he had found sapphire. Other accounts credit a Meru herdsman, Jumanne Mhero Ngoma, with the first find.

At first no one was sure what the crystals were. They turned out to be a blue gem variety of zoisite. Tiffany & Co. became the main distributor, named the gem after the country it came from, and launched it with a big publicity campaign in 1968.

All tanzanite comes from this one small area, where it is mined from folded metamorphic rocks. Hot fluids moving through faults reacted with the rock and grew the crystals, often in cavities or along quartz veins. The colour is linked to vanadium, and tanzanite shows strong pleochroism, looking blue, violet or other shades from different directions.

This one of a kind tanzanite specimen shows the deep blue-violet color that made the mineral famous, with a naturally terminated crystal shape and strong vertical striations running along the length of the crystal faces. The piece has a bold, sculptural form, with a pointed upper termination, stepped side growth, and translucent to semi-transparent body color that shifts from darker indigo to brighter violet-blue where the light passes through.

Many people are drawn to tanzanite for its association with insight, calm focus, and transformation. It is often chosen by those who feel they are entering a new stage of life and want something that symbolizes perspective, intuition, and thoughtful change.

Quantity: 1pc
With this product, you will get the actual stone in the photograph.