| te is only found in one place in the entire world, in | | | | Through heat treatment at 500+ degrees celcius |
| the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is commonly | | | | the rough tanzanite crystals turn their beautiful |
| thought that tanzanite was discovered in 1967 by | | | | violetish-blue color. The rough tanzanite gems are |
| a Maasai tribesman. The tribesman found a | | | | then faceted into various shapes in India, USA and |
| transluscent blue rock that he thought to be a | | | | Europe and then marketed to an approved list of |
| sapphire. When the stone was tested, it was | | | | sightholders who wholesale the finished gems to |
| found to have different properties than corundum | | | | jewelry manufacturers and retailers. |
| (sapphire). What the tribesman had found was | | | | Tanzanite colors occur in various shades of gray, |
| determined to be the crystalline form of the | | | | brown, violet, blue, reddish-purple, and tints of |
| mineral zoisite. | | | | green, though the most valuable color is |
| Mined with very primitive methods, most | | | | considered to be a strong bluish-violet color with |
| tanzanite crystals come out of the ground | | | | flashes of purple and/or red. |
| demonstrating a dingey yellowish-brown color. | | | | |