Tourmaline
Tourmaline comes in almost every colour, often several in one crystal. We grade carefully because colour is the price.
In short
Tourmaline is mined from pegmatite rock, sorted by colour and clarity, and sold as rough or specimens.
- Type
- Borosilicate group
- Density
- 3.0–3.3 g/cm³
- Hardness
- 7–7.5 Mohs
- Priced in
- Per carat or per specimen
What it is
Tourmaline is a family of complex boron silicate minerals. Its colour changes with its chemistry: pink rubellite, green verdelite, blue indicolite and two-coloured 'watermelon' crystals. That variety makes it popular with jewellery designers.
Supplied as
- Rough
- Crystals and specimens
Who buys it
- Jewellery
- Collector specimens
What we check before we sell
- 01Colour and clarity grading
- 02Treatment disclosure
- 03Origin documentation
From raw to refined
How tourmaline becomescut tourmaline.
Follow tourmaline through 8 stages, from the moment it leaves the ground to the finished piece. Keep scrolling: each step has its own photograph or film.
Mine · Pegmatite working
Into the pegmatite
Tourmaline grows in pockets inside pegmatite, a coarse granite-like rock. Miners tunnel and blast carefully to open a pocket without breaking the crystals.
Next commodity
Aquamarine