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11/17/08 Update As of last week, my contact in Tanzania has reported that the mines are still closed with no news on when and if they will be reopened. There are still previously mined material that will likely continue to be sold over time. From what I have seen after looking at many shipments, the best crystals were imported months ago and what is being seen in recent shipments are generally the lower quality pieces not previously purchased, generally more cloudy and with a more brownish tone (crystal below on right), as compared to the more gemmy, tangerine orange crystals (crystal on left). The difference in quality is very evident in person.
I have a large number of the the more cloudy, brown orange crystals for offer, which are still good crystals and inexpensive as can be seen on this page. ****************** Presenting a new find of Spessartine Garnets from Tanzania, the best of which have top "citrus" orange color, are complete all around, have sharp crystal edges, and have a minimum or no black inclusions. There has been alot said and posted on the internet over the past few months about these garnets so here is what I know about this find. It was first discoved in approximately November 2007 and found as a surface eluvial deposit on Masaai land near the town of Loliondo just west of the Kenyan border as loose Garnet crystals found weathered out of the parent rock. The vast majority of the Garnets were partial crystals, dinged crystals, or crystals with so many black inclusions it made them undesirable for mineral specimens. The good ones though were very good - highly gemmy with a bright citrus orange color that is tops for Spessartine. I had long considered the Spessartine from the Little 3 Mine in San Diego as some of the best, and they are, however when I compared the better pieces from this find (but rough and faceted) to Little 3 crystals and faceted stones, the Tanzanian color was obviously superior being a more bright and vivid orange. At first, the miners were breaking up the crystals to get at the valuable gem rough inside (faceted stones are retailing for $200-$300 per carat for good stones) however a handful or mineral dealers visiting the region were able to start getting specimen grade crystals from the miners and these crystals first showed up at the 2008 Tucson show. The miners dug the eluvial deposit over the following months, and even though they were concentrated due to thousand to millions of years of weathering from the parent rock, the better crystals were still uncommon. A reliable source who was in Tanzania in August 2008 has told me that the miners have now mined though all the eluvium, reached hard rock, and have generally given up on the deposit. The site is now guarded, not being worked, and nearly all of the miners have left for the Ruby and Sapphire deposits of Winza near Dodoma. The family who has claims on most of this area have said it is no longer economical to mine the crystals. Despite the relative scarcity of the good crystals, mining was profitable when the crystals had been concentrated over time; now, however, when you have to mine through hard rock and search for the better crystals dispersed throughout the formation, the claim owners have said mining is no longer profitable. I have bought all the matrix Spessartine specimens I saw available that were produced from this mining effort into the host formation, the best of which are linked below. There is speculation/rumor that the area may be opened up again one day as a gem rough mining operation similar to what is happening at TanzaniteOne, though this would likely lead to a situation were some, but not many, garnet specimens reach the collector market. What is known is that the best of these crystals are surely the finest Spessartine yet found, though there is a wide range of quality which ranges from brown, included, dinged, and/or partial crystals which can be had for very cheap, all the way up to the small handful of glowing, transparent perfect crystals which I have only heard rumor of that sold immediatly in the $25,000 range each. Though not nearly that expensive, the crystals listed on these pages are in in the top percentile for the find. I have heard speculation that because of the geological type of the deposit, these Garnets could be coming out in large quantity with prices dropping like Indian zeolites, however this is not what we have seen so far. What we have seen is an almost instant mining out of a deposit that took nature millions of years to create. Yes, there is the possibility of larger scale mechanical mining into an insitu deposit of an unknown size, regardless, comparing these Spessartines to Indian zeolites is really comparing apples to oranges due to the inherent value of the Spessartine as faceted gems (i.e. if faceted Apophyllites were selling for $200/carat, you would not see $10 Apophyllites for sale). A better comparison may be Brazilian Imperial Topaz or Tanzanite, where mining of unique deposits has been going on for years with many tons of crystals produced, yet values for good Topaz or Tanzanite crystals have continued to rise. The plain fact is that no miner is going to sell an Imperial Topaz, Tanzanite, or one of these Spessartine crystals for less than they can get selling them as gem rough, which for these materials can quickly get into the hundreds of dollars. And, due to the relative scarcity of the good, pure orange crystals, the better crystals should also remain valuable simply due to their scarcity, regardless of any inherent gem value. A gem dealer friend of mine had the following to say "I can only compare it (the Spessartine) to 2 other finds, Tanzanite several years ago, where some people were staying clear of it saying the price would soon be as cheap as blue topaz. And the Nigerian tourmaline (estimated production about 20 tons) which you are lucky even to see a piece of good rough now. The estimates of production of the Spessartine is about 3 tons, nothing compared to the Nigerian tourmaline or Tanzanite production. And then, you have before my time, the Brazilian aqaumarine production of the 50"s I believe, where they produced good cutting material, of an estimated 50 tons!!! Where is this material now???" This is admittedly mostly in reference to the gem rough, but is still applicable in general to the mineral market. This is everything I know of the find so far and I will update this page as any new information becomes available. |
