Tanzanite

Tanzanite

Tanzanite is a beautiful, elegant blue to violet to purple variety of the mineral zoisite. It is rarer than diamonds as it is only found in one area of the world: the Merelani Hills of Tanzania, hence the name Tanzanite.

The appearance of the stone is greatly influenced by its characteristic of pleochrosim, which is when the gemstone is viewed from different crystal directions, it shows different colors.

Tanzanite was only found in 1967 and it was named ‘Tanzanite’ by Tiffany & Co.

95% of the Tanzanites mined are in a brownish crystal form and it is heated in an oven with temperatures above 500° in order to get the beautiful vivid blue color.

As tanzanite can be found in deeper blue hues, it is a great substitute to Sapphires 

Mohs Hardness: 6 to 7

Birthstone for December