The Discovery and Naming of Paraiba
1989 Late in the year, a gem exploration team led by Heitor Barbosa discovered a tourmaline with bright turquoise blue in Paraiba province in northeast Brazil, and named it after the local place name-Paraiba. The bright blue-green color of this gem, with the neon light like Shi Huo, immediately caused a sensation in the gem world at that time. Then, in 2000, the gem exploration team discovered Paraiba in Mozambique and Zznja.
The basic nature of Paraiba
Pale tourmaline has a specific gravity of 3.06, a refractive index of 1.62- 1.64, a birefringence of 0.0 18, a Mohs hardness of 7-7.5, a composite borosilicate composed of metal elements such as copper and manganese, a tripartite/hexagonal crystal system, no cleavage, sawtooth or conchoidal fracture, and a glass luster.
Paraiba's definition
Theoretically, the blue-green tourmaline containing copper can be called Paraiba tourmaline, but scholars who hold the origin view generally believe that only the copper-containing tourmaline produced in Paraiba, Brazil can be regarded as the real Paraiba tourmaline. Generally speaking, Paraiba tourmaline produced in Brazil is bright blue with less carats, while Paraiba tourmaline produced in Zznja and Mozambique tends to be green or blue-green, with more carats.
The unique charm of Paraiba.
The vivid colors of Paraiba tourmaline can only be fully displayed after cutting. When it is cut and carved, it will emit a very unique fire and bright light, even if only a little light shines on it. Therefore, people call this color "electric blue" or "neon red blue". Unique and energetic features make this rare treasure of nature extremely attractive and charming.
The causes of color in Paraiba
Paraiba is a kind of tourmaline with special color. Usually, a very small amount of iron, manganese, chromium and vanadium give tourmaline such a beautiful and changeable color. But for Paraiba tourmaline, it is completely different. It is copper that makes the tourmaline in Paraiba show a completely different color. This element has never appeared in any tourmaline before. In addition, scientists also found that it also contains manganese.
Due to the combination of copper and manganese, Paraiba tourmaline has a very beautiful and charming color range: emerald green, Turkish blue to sky blue, sapphire blue, indigo blue, deep purple and purplish red. Of course, the mixture of these two elements may also lead to light gray to purple blue. High concentration of copper is the main cause of rare and dazzling neon red, blue-green tone, Turkish blue and green. On the contrary, purple and red are caused by manganese.
Paraiba's output
Tourmaline in Paraiba is extremely rare. Even after the discovery of new veins in Mozambique and Zznja in 2000, the output of Paraiba tourmaline is only about one thousandth of the global annual output of natural diamonds, and the most valuable Turkish blue Paraiba tourmaline is even rarer. The color of Paraiba tourmaline is mainly green to blue, and the green variety is as deep as emerald, but the rare variety is bright blue, showing bright Turkish blue, which is quite unique and charming. The purest variety presents a very unique "neon blue" color, which is the rarest and most precious variety in tourmaline series.
The market value of Paraiba
Pallai Babi Tourmaline, with extremely low output, gorgeous color and great aesthetic and investment value, has become a collection-level collection sought after by many top rich people, including Arabian Oil King. With the depletion of vein resources, its value will continue to rise.
Palebabbitt tourmaline made its debut at the Toussaint Jewelry Fair on 1989. At first, its price was about 100~200 USD/carat, but within a week, its price soared nearly 10 times, reaching 2000 USD/carat, which dramatically attracted the attention of all jewelry investors. After that, the price of 3-5 carats of fine Pale tourmaline was as high as $65,438+0,000 per carat. Nowadays, the price of high-quality Pale tourmaline can reach $20,000-$50,000/carat, or even higher, which is staggering.
Collection point of Pallaibabyl nitrile;
Confirm the place of origin, and the prices vary greatly from place to place.
Pale, Brazil, tourmaline from Paraiba is the most distinguished variety, and its natural value doubles. It is a pity that the barbiturine from Pale is almost extinct now, and most of the Paraiba benionitrile on the market now comes from Zznja and Mozambique in southeast Africa.
The color choice should be electro-optic blue, and the heat treatment doesn't matter.
The most valuable Pale tourmaline is electro-optic blue. Don't hesitate even if it contains obvious inclusions. Usually, Pale tourmaline will undergo heat treatment to eliminate or reduce the purple shadow caused by manganese, so as to obtain a more ideal cyan. Once this heat treatment is successful, the effect is very stable, which is recognized in the gem world, and even the authoritative appraisal certificate will not be specially marked.
The shape is not covered with neon colors, and cutting is not important.
Pale bare stones with pillow-shaped, oval or circular cambered surfaces and emerald-shaped cutting shapes are common in the market, and these shapes of Pale tourmaline bare stones are very beautiful. But this is not the point, because it is so rare that jewelers mainly use these shapes to minimize the loss of polishing. Pallaibabyl nitrile itself is not exquisite, and even a faint light can't hide its lightning brilliance.
do what one is capable of
Although we collect Pale tourmaline, we all emphasize that the big one is more valuable. However, the price of Paraiba Becky is high and the annual output is low. Finding a perfect color and closing your eyes is a godsend. Collecting Pallai Babbage needs to be done according to personal financial resources.
Paraiba tourmaline was first discovered in Paraiba, Brazil, but with the exploitation of vein resources, Brazil's mineral resources are almost exhausted and rarely appear in the market. 2/kloc-0 At the beginning of the 20th century, people discovered the resources of Pale and Pakistan in Africa. At present, the vast majority of Pale tourmaline on the market comes from Nigeria, Zznja and Mozambique in southeast Africa.
So, how to distinguish the raw materials from the three producing areas?
Fans of Pale Tourmaline in Brazil have always been cautious about the so-called Pale Tourmaline found in Africa. We have to admit that although the raw materials found in Africa are relatively clean and bulky, compared with the Pale tourmaline in Brazil, its color is slightly pale and its color saturation is relatively low.
The raw materials of Pale tourmaline in Mozambique are not as bright as those in Brazil, but they are usually more colorful than those in Nigeria. However, the tourmaline of Pale and the tourmaline of Pale in Brazil obviously overlap in color, especially the raw materials produced in Rio Grande do Norte.
However, these subtle differences are difficult to capture in the eyes of laymen. Scientists try to find the difference between these two characteristics by cutting raw materials, but often the test results show that tourmaline from Pale and tourmaline from Africa have the same composition.
Their beautiful colors are all caused by two elements: copper and manganese. Therefore, the standard gemological test and semi-quantitative chemical data analysis can not accurately distinguish which of the three countries Palepa tourmaline comes from.
However, as far as spectral characteristics are concerned, mass spectrometry analysis can reveal the subtle chemical differences of gem compositions in Brazil, Nigeria, Zznja and Mozambique.