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The popularity of Paraiba Tourmaline has sky-rocketed over the past decade, with prices of the most coveted and expensive stones in the world.
In 1981, the discovery of Paraiba begins with a simple Brazilian man named Heitor DimaBarbosa, a man who dreamed of finding something completely different.
Heitor was convinced that something lay hidden deep in the Paraiba hill near his Brazilian home and he began his hunt by excavating in the old mines in the area.
It took five and a half years of hard work in the labyrinths of passages in shafts that lay beneath the Paraiba hill before Tourmaline deposits were found.
The digging continued and finally in the Autumn of 1989 a new Tourmaline treasure had been discovered, a brilliant neon blue and green Tourmaline more vivid than ever seen before.
In 2001 similar turquoise colored Tourmalines were discovered in Nigeria. Though the Nigeria stones tend to be slightly lighter then the Paraiba stones, it is hardly noticeable.
Studies conducted by scientists also have confirmed that their color is also due to traces of Copper and Manganese. This find has created many discussions regarding continental drift as the coastline of South America and Africa fit much like a jigsaw puzzle, with Nigeria and north-east Brazil directly linked.
Gem-quality bright blue to green “Paraíba”-type Cu-bearing tourmaline is now known from deposits in Africa (Nigeria and Mozambique), in addition to three commercial localities in Brazil (in Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte States).
Stones from these new localities have been mixed into parcels from the original Brazilian Paraíba occurrence.
The Nigerian and Mozambique tourmalines that show saturated blue-to-green colors cannot be distinguished from the Brazilian material by standard gemological testing or on the basis of semi-quantitative chemical data (obtained by EDXRF analysis).
(Sample AGTA, cick on the report for a larger pdf. image)
The new Cu-bearing tourmalines from Mozambique showed enriched contents of Be, Sc, Ga, Pb, and Bi.
However, quantitative chemical data obtained by LA-ICP-MS show that tourmalines from the three countries can be differentiated by plotting (Ga+Pb) versus (Cu+Mn), (Cu+Mn) versus the Pb/Be ratio, and Mg-Zn-Pb. In general, the Nigerian tourmalines contained greater amounts of Ga, Ge, and Pb, whereas the Brazilian stones had more Mg, Zn, and Sb.
When viewing a Paraiba, it is easy to understand the immense popularity that this gemstone has received. Nature created a gemstone thats color, brilliance and luminosity goes unrivaled.
The combination of Copper and Manganese found within Paraiba creates a vast array of remarkable colors including neon greens, turquoises, electric blues, deep Sapphire blues, purple-blues, and reddish-purples.
The Manganese causes the reds and purple shades found in Paraiba whereas a higher concentration of Copper causes the more sought after brilliant blues, greens, and turquoises.
Chemical Symbol:
The general symbol for Tourmaline is (Na, Ca)(Li, Mg, Al)(Al, Fe, Mn)6(BO3)3(Si6O18)(OH)4
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