This shield cut gemstone is from Mozambique and is copper bearing. It has a medium toned, well saturated lavender color in an eye clean and sparking gemstone. It weighs a beautiful 4.40 carats.
It is probably unnecessary and maybe even childish to type the same color before tourmaline twice in the title of this post. It is just a way to express how important this color is in my world of color in tourmaline. Besides being beautiful, well saturated lavender was one of the colors that came out of Mozambique saying something wonderful and different in tourmaline was being found. What it did not say for years was that something was copper bearing or could produce gemstones in the same league as Paraiba tourmaline from Brazil. That would have to wait until I sent in a gemstone with the unique property of reverse Alexandrite color change from lavender in natural light to blue green in incandescent light to the GIA for testing. (I call the new variety of tourmaline Laurellite and I have more complete posts about it)
This is a beautiful gemstone regardless of its history or its cuprian nature. It is a very bright, eye clean and out going shield cut. Although its medium toned, well saturated lavender color is a strong indicator of its cuprian nature, I have confirmed its cuprian nature with my spectrometer. I have pastel purples, mainly from Madagascar that don’t have copper and lack the level of saturation found in the lavenders of Mozambique. It weighs a treasured 4.40 carats.
Bruce
