Tanzanite History - By: Bernard McClay

From being just another variety of stone lodged in the deep recesses of the Earth in the mysterious African continent to being a gemstone that has caught the imagination of designers, artists, businessmen and the general public alike, the history of the magnificent gemstone knows as Tanzanite in an interesting one to trace.

Tanzanite is an extraordinary gemstone. It occurs in only one place worldwide. Its blue, surrounded by a fine hint of purple, is a wonderful color. Tanzanite is a blue variety of the gemstone Zoisite. It consists of calcium aluminum silicate and is not particularly hard, having a value of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale. For that reason, it should always be worn carefully and never placed in an ultrasonic bath for cleaning or brought into contact with acids. Tanzanite is the blue/purple variety of the mineral zoisite discovered in the Meralani Hills of northern Tanzania in 1967, near the city of Arusha. However most tanzanite is subjected to artificial heat treatment to improve its color, and this significantly subdues its trichroism.

In terms of time, Tanzanite history is very short as compared to that of other prominent gemstones such as diamond etc. However, even during this short time, tanzanite has had its role in various ups and downs that have left a mark in history. Tanzanite history can be first traced back to the early 1960s when it was first discovered. History has it that some local Massai herdsmen in Tanzania that were passing by the Mt. Kilimanjaro first caught sight of the beautiful stone. Enthralled by the pretty bluish hues of the stone but unsure of its identity, the herdsmen took it to a Goan tailor, Manuel De Souza, who also happened to be an avid prospector and student of gemstones. Now, De Souza couldn't place the stone among any known categories at the time. Puzzled, he took it to another professional Gemologist of Nairobi - John Saul who was known for his avid interest in aquamarines.

It was through John Saul that the stone finally reached Hymen Saul, his father, who decided to get some of the samples cut like a diamond so that it now showed many faces and thus split light into beautiful bluish colors. On presenting the stone to Henry Platt who was the director of Tiffany and Co., a new stone was born. Henry Platt loved the stone and decided to christen it Tanzanite in recognition of its place of discovery. The sheer beauty of the gemstone and some clever marketing led to a gradual rise in its popularity and acceptance of the masses.

Since then, Tanzanite jewelry has seen a lot of ups and downs with variations in demand, supply and thereby prices caused by various new mines being open, some being shut down and at one time some of the mines getting flooded casing tragic losses of the lives of many miners. Probably the most notorious point in Tanzanite history is the time when in 2001, just after the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trade center, an article was published that linked terrorist funding to illegal sale of smuggled tanzanite in free markets of Dubai and other places. Sales of the stone dropped for a while to extremely low levels during that period but again picked up when no real evidence could be found for the claim. But then, the article also saw to it that Tanzanite attained even more popularity and wide recognition and curious interest.

Some years a company known as Tanzanite One Ltd got hold of licenses for large portions of the tanzanite mines and with some shrewd control of demand and supply and a lot of marketing, the stone has never looked back. Even today, the prices of tanzanite are continuously on the rise with no signs of declining popularity and more and more people are being drawn across the globe captivated by the beautiful violet-blue of this young gemstone.

From being just another variety of stone lodged in the deep recesses of the Earth in the mysterious African continent to being a gemstone that has caught the imagination of designers, artists, businessmen and the general public alike, the history of the magnificent gemstone knows as Tanzanite in an interesting one to trace.

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