Precious Gemstones
Is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewellery or other adornments.
Gemstone Education
Red Ruby
Ruby is the rarest and most valuable member of the corundum family. Colours range from pink red ruby to a vivid pigeon blood red that is regarded as the finest colour for ruby. Prized for their beauty, durability, and rarity, it is the quality of the colour which most determines the value of rubies.
Blue Sapphire
Blue sapphire is one of the classic precious gems, valued for its vivid colour and excellent hardness. Fashions come and go, but blue sapphire is always popular for important jewellery such as engagement rings. Blue sapphire colours range from pale blue to cornflower blue to royal blue, navy blue and midnight blue.
Alexandrite
Alexandrite is one of the rarest of all coloured gemstones available today. More specifically, it is an extremely rare colour change variety of chrysoberyl (a cyclosilicate). Despite its name, chrysoberyl, which is an aluminate of beryllium, does not actually belong to the beryl mineral group, but rather, it is classified as its own independent mineral group.
Green Emerald
Emeralds, like all coloured gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four Cs of connoisseurship: colour, clarity, cut and carat weight. Normally, in the grading of coloured gemstones, colour is by far the most important criterion. However, in the grading of emeralds, clarity is considered a close second. A fine emerald must possess not only a pure verdant green hue as described below, but also a high degree of transparency to be considered a top gem.
Paraiba Tourmaline
Paraiba tourmaline is the rarest and most valuable tourmaline is the greenish-blue paraiba tourmaline. Coloured by copper, it displays a distinctive neon glow. Paraiba tourmaline may also occur in emerald green or purple.
Purple Garnet
Purple Garnet is a rare hybrid garnet found in East Africa. The finest material, from Mozambique, has an amazing vivid purple hue with red flashes. These rare gems display a colour change from grape to cranberry with magenta flashes.
Spessartite Garnet
Spessartite garnet is an orange to red-brown gemstone that belongs to the large and varied garnet species of gems. The garnet group can be classified into two primary classes; pyrospites (aluminum) and ugandites (calcium) garnets. The name, “spessartine” comes from the Bavarian word, “Spessart”, meaning “forest”, which is a mountain range in Germany
Spinel
Spinel is a hard vitreous magnesium aluminum oxide that has been used as a gemstone for centuries. The beauty of spinel has caused it to be mistaken for ruby and sapphire in the past. However, spinel deserves to be recognised as a gemstone that is worthy of appreciation in its own right. Spinel occurs in a range of colours, such as rose pink to rich red; lavender to deep violet; light to deep blue, orange, yellow, brown and black.
Jadeite Jade
Jadeite Jade is a pyroxene mineral and one of the two types of pure jade. The other is known as nephrite jade. Jadeite is the rarer of the two jades, and as a result, it is considered to be more precious and valuable. The most valuable form of jadeite is a striking and even emerald green known as “imperial jadeite”.