One of the tourmalines I had tested with GIA’s laser ablation mass spectrometer instrument when I visited in January was a bright red standard round brilliant. Even with some inclusions and a flatted crown it is a beautiful smaller gem. I have not seen this saturated a red in tourmaline in a long time. My spectrometer spots it as a potential cupprian tourmaline, but the spectrometer can not reach far enough into the infrared to confirm the existace of copper. Manganese plus 3 has a peak in the infrared that complicates cuprian identification in red and pink tourmaline. Not a problem for the GIA.
I know that ruby red cuprian was found at the original source of Paraiba tourmaline in Brazil. It was a shame, but it was heated along with any material that could be changed to cyan. That was where the money was. I will not be heating my piece, that has exceptional brightness that I really thought came from copper, but I have looked at other vivid red tourmaline and found no indication of copper. So I am dependant on the spectrometer to see copper and not the tourmaline’s color or brightness. Such a complicated world of color in tourmaline.
