Hello fellow amateur geologists and Minecraft enthusiasts.
Today, we'll be taking a look at 10 of the rarest gems and jewels found on Planet Earth.
Starting off at number 10 is tanzanite.
Tanzanite is a blue-violet variety of the mineral zoisite,
belonging to the epidote group. (a lot of Ites and Otes)
It was discovered by a Tanzanian in the mineral hills of the Manyara region in Northern Tanzania, in 1967.
Tanzanite is used as a relatively cheap gemstone, after undergoing artificial heat treatment to form a deep blue coloration.
Naturally formed tanzanite, the type we're talking about, is very rare and
endemic only to a certain hill range.
Tanzanite appears sapphire blue, violet and burgundy, depending on how the crystals are oriented.
Tanzanite also appears differently when viewed under alternate lighting conditions.
The blues appear more evident when under fluorescent light and the violets
can be seen in incandescent light. Tanzanite is usually a reddish-brown in its rough state, requiring artificial
heat treatment to bring out the blue-violet of the stone. The typical price of a single carat of tanzanite
is about $300, which doesn't sound like a lot but trust me, it sky rockets quickly.
Which doesn't Sound like a lot but trust me it skyrockets quickly
When cut better, it can sell for up to $1,000, but that's a little bit rare.
Number 9...Grandidierite.
Grandidierite is an extremely rare mineral and gem that was first discovered in 1902,
in Southern Madagascar. The mineral was named in honor of French explorer Alfred Grandidier,
who studied the natural history of Madagascar.
It's a bluish-green color...kind of looks like a mythical metal. Gem-quality granting right is exceedingly rare.
Many gem collectors would love to add grandidierite to their collections,
but it's almost impossible to find . Recent discoveries of gem quality in Madagascar has made a few high quality stones available.
Grandidierite is typically a bluish-green in color and derives its distinctive color from traces of iron.
Gemming material, is more translucent. Fully transparent specimens are ultra rare.
Opaque grandidierite is not gem quality and sells for lower prices.
A single carat of grandidierite, depending on the cut, sells for about $2,000 to $3,000.
It's got a high fluctuation rate, so it could sell for about $1,500 to $3,500,
but typically you see about one carat of grandidierite for about $2,000.
Number 8...Black opals.
Opals are a hydrated amorphous form of silica. Because of its amorphous character, these are actually classified
as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are just minerals. Now opals, in and of themselves,
are pretty valuable, but black opals are the most valuable. Black opals come from Australia,
or true black opals, I should say. It's the most valuable and rare opal of them all. The word "black" opal might
conjure up images of a black color, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. It's actually a rainbow of colors,
quite brilliantly studded. A single carat of Australian black opal can fetch a price of about 15,000 Australian dollars
Which is I think close to about 12,000 American dollars.
But I'm not very sure about that. It might be almost a dollar-for-dollar.
Either way, $15,000 per carat is pretty crazy high.
Number 7...Taaffeite.
Taaffeite is a mineral named after its discoverer, Richard Taaffe, who found the first sample, a cut and polished gem
In Dublin, Ireland. As such it is the only gemstone to have been initially identified from a faceted stone.
Most pieces of the gem, prior to Taaffe, had been misidentified as spinel. For many years afterwards,
it was only known in a few samples, and is still one of the rarest gemstones in the world.
Taaffeite is the only mineral that contains both beryllium and magnesium as its central components.
Because of its rarity, taaffeite is only used as a gemstone.
Taaffeite occurs in carbonate rocks, alongside fluorite, mica and spinel.
This extremely rare mineral is increasingly found in alluvial deposits in Sri Lanka and Southern Tanzania,
as well as lower grade taaffeite in limestone sediments in China.
There is not much cut taaffeite in the world today, making it exceedingly rare...
not even enough for you to build a pickaxe out of.
Because taaffeite is actually a category of minerals, the price varies wildly, but some of the rarest forms
of taaffeite sell for about $13,000, give or take a carat.
Number 6...
Alexandrite.
Alexandrite is a variety of chrysoberyl which is an aluminate of beryllium.
The reason alexandrite is sought after is because its colors change, depending on the lighting, and much
more than grandidierite. Alexandrite appears green in daylight, where a full spectrum of visible light is present,
and red in incandescent light, which emits less green and blue spectra. This color change is independent of
your viewing direction, meaning it will always be the same,
depending on the light source and not where you're standing.
Alexandrite comes from the Ural Mountains of Russia, and is the most notorious form,
green by daylight and red by incandescent light. Other varieties of alexandrite may be yellowish or pink
in daylight, and a Columbine or raspberry red by incandescent light. Stones that show a more dramatic
color change are rarer and sought after. Carats of alexandrite sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
Number 5...Musgravite.
Musgravite is a rare oxide mineral. It is used as a gemstone. It's located in South
Australia in the Musgrave Ranges, for which it was named. It's a member of the taaffeite family of minerals
and since it's a subsection, it's even rarer than taaffeite. It comes in green to
gray-green, and is mostly transparent. The price of a single carat of musgravite is over $35,000.
Number 4...Painite.
Painite is an incredibly rare borate mineral.
It was found in Myanmar in the 1950s by gem dealer Arthur C D Payne. It was named after him, obviously.
Painite has an orange-red to brownish-red color, similar to topaz due to the iron within it. For many years,
only three small crystals of painite were known to exist. Before 2005, there were fewer than 25 known
crystals found, though some more material has been unearthed recently in Myanmar.
Most of the more recent crystals are dark, opaque incomplete crystals. A very small number of
transparent crystals have been found and are either saved as crystals are cut into gemstones.
That is the only use for painite because there is so few of it, they only turn it into gemstones.
One carat of painite sells for about $60,000.
Number 3...Serendibite.
Serendibite is an extremely rare mineral that was first discovered in 1902 in Sri Lanka, and named after
Serendib, the old Arabic name for Sri Lanka.
Not much is known about this mineral, but what is known is its incredible price.
Serendibite is so rare it sells for $2,000,000 a carat. It's almost pure black in color.
You thought painite was rare, where there are only three or so gems for it in existence.
Serendibite has so much less materials. It sells for $1.8 to $2,000,000 a carat. That's like stupid rare.
There's only enough of that to make a few rings out of, but it's still not the rarest.
Number 2...Red diamonds.
Yes, there's such a thing as a true red diamond. A regular red diamond for 1/10 of a carat sells for about $40,000.
A full carat of red diamonds can sell for millions. The price is almost indeterminable because they're
so rare, they only come from one mine in Australia. But as an example, the Pink Star Diamond is a
diamond made of red diamond that weighs almost 60 carats, yeah, 60 carats.
It took 20 months to cut the diamond. It was unveiled in Monaco in 2003.
Red diamonds are rare because of the artificial supply and demand. There are probably a lot of red diamonds,
but they're not really in circulation. Anyway, to be honest, most diamonds are not 60 carats large.
That's insane! This diamond sold for a whopping $83,000,000 in November of 2013.
And number one. The number one rarest gem on the planet is Jadeite.
Jadeite is Jade, as you may have guessed. The name Jadeite was believed to cure kidney stones for the
longest time, if rubbed on the side of the person's body. It obviously doesn't do that. Jadeite is one of the
minerals recognized as the gemstone jade the other is nephrite the much more common one.
Jadeite from Guatemala was used by Olmec and Mayans, as well as the
indigenous people of Costa Rica. The most highly valued colors of Jadeite are intense green.
Jadeite comes from unknown sources and is usually in free-standing boulders.
Some carats of jadeite have sold for over $3,000,000. But jade is so rare,
and so up for grabs that it can sell for even more. It's almost priceless.
Just think about it gang, when a Chinese emperor wanted to represent a dragon, a mythical creature,
and he wanted to represent that in the best way possible. He had the statues made out of jade.
The mythical substance, or at least that's what the Chinese, I think, believed.
It seems like jade is almost revered in its own divinity, above other regular elements.
And for that reason, it seems to command the highest price of all.
Apparently, in 1997 in Hong Kong, 0.5 mm jadeite beads sold for $9.3 million.
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What's your favorite type of gemstone? Mine are rubies. I hope you guys are having a great day. Bye. Bye