JewelStruck Blog

Here we go with our second post on Gemstone Each Month Series, GEMS – March for Aquamarine. In this post we would be discussing about mines and types of Aquamarine. Also featuring faboulus Aquamarine beaded, Gailaviraean Twist style hoop earrings, by Candy Degel. If you have anything to share with us on Auqamarine, please do email us on info@jewelstruck.com before the month ends :-)

Aquamarine beaded, Gailaviraean Twist style hoop earrings

Aquamarines are generally distinguished from their colors. Various varieties of auqamarine coming from different sources have different shades of blue. Its really tough to find untreated(unheated) crystal, as almost every stone is heat treated to remove the green tint.

• Brazil is the main source of Aquamarine and is a leader in world market today. Aquamarines mined from the Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Brazil are intense blue, they are named after the state  and called ‘Santa Maria’. The other variety from Brazil which is a blue not so intense, comes from state called ‘Espirito Santo’.
• Some stones mined in Africa, particularly Mozambique too have a similar intense blue color as Brazillian one. Though African they have been given name ‘Santa Maria Africana’.
• Aquamarine mined from Madagascar are genrally medium dark blue in color.
• India, Pakistan, Mozambique, Nigeria, China, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Norway, North Ireland, Russia and the United States are few other sources for Aquamarine.

A few varieties of Aquamarine also include

• clear yellow beryl, sometimes called aquamarine chrysolite.
• corondum with a bluish tint of typical aquamarine, often termed Oriental Aquamarine.
• The deep blue version of aquamarine is called maxixe.

So thats all we had to discuss on sources and types, we will be coming with more on Aquamarine sooner.

Image Credits: Candy Degel