Dear Friends and Associates,
Third 2015 Newsletter is here with more exciting info about gems, selected mineral specimen and crystals from all continents. A lot happened since the April Newsletter and I’m proud to offer you some of worlds finest untreated and guaranteed natural gems at true wholesale prices. A statement so many make but only few actually deliver!
Peruvian Electric Blue OPAL
In my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful types of Opal exhibiting absolutely amazing pure pool blue-green color rivaling the best Paraiba Tourmalines, and all this in absolutely natural color. No soaking in blue dye, something most of my competitors are doing to greatly improve the color of their Opals.
Opal in this color and quality is found only in Peru and supply is very limited and sporadic. According to the most recent info from the mining site, only 7 guys are mining these amazing gems with hand tools and annual output of top quality, uniformly colored rough without major inclusions and color striping is measured in ounces, not in hundreds of kilos like with most other popular gems.
I was able to acquire little over 350g of the finest material this spring. I went thru over 200 kilos of high grade, already pre-selected faceting rough and I hand picked only few of the very best pieces. Frankly, I don’t know of anyone else having such top of the line Blue Opal in stock.
First 5 gems were already cut by my most skilled European cutter Ian and many more pieces will be cut soon.
Etched Floater TOPAZ from Nigeria
Most people do not realize that natural untreated blue topaz is considerably rarer in nature compared for example to similarly looking blue Aquamarine. Most of the blue Topaz you see today in jewelry stores and gem shows is irradiated and heated cheap clear “silver” topaz. Actual value of these stones is close to nothing. Indian dealers sell cut stones (badly cut stones if I may say) for a quarter per carat… no need to further comment on this I think.
Nigeria has been producing natural sky blue topaz mainly from alluvial deposits. This means that stones from these localities are found in river-worn pebbles and nodules, and the original crystal surface has been completely worn-off. During this summer I located and purchased several very beautiful and highly valued etched floaters discovered at the prime deposits in Nigeria. Etched Topaz floaters are very rare in nature, hard to obtain and value of naturally blue or greenish pieces is tackling 70 dollars per gram.
Enjoy few photos of the largest 116.77g piece discovered in July 2015. Few more pieces are available at the time of writing this Newsletter.
Naturally Colored TOPAZ Nodules from Nigeria
Nigeria is one of the last places in the world still supplying naturally colored Topaz in several beautiful colors. The most famous color is sky blue. These gems are both very beautiful and very rare. Natural untreated Blue Topaz can not be even compared with the cheap irradiated blue Topaz seen everywhere on the market these days. True value of natural blue stones should be in approx. 250 USD per carat but because the man made, irradiated Topaz is so cheap, most people don’t know the difference and natural Blue Topaz is therefore heavily undervalued. If you are looking for true Blue Topaz, do not even consider the irradiated stones, please.
Occasionally there are other naturally colored Topazes found in Nigeria. Worth mentioning is Yellow or Yellow-Green. These Topazes are usually strongly dichroic, showing beautiful yellow color on A and B axis than turning into sky blue or pastel blue-greenish on C axis. Faceted gems show both colors blending to each other.
Rarely there is a piece of Green, Peachy-Pink or Orangey topaz found in Nigeria. I buy Nigerian Topaz on regular basis in multiple kilo quantities. Some pieces are cut by my own cutters, rest is sold to fellow cutters or retail dealers. I will be happy to give you detailed information about current stock, both rough and cut.
Big Nigerian Peachy-Pink TOPAZ Crystal
When buying rough from Nigeria I ran across this very big single piece of Peachy-Pink Topaz in blocky, river-worn shape. Around 60% of this chunk appears to be clean enough for faceting and I expect few beautiful gems out of this piece.
Peachy Pink Topaz is even more rare than natural untreated Sky Blue Topaz. Regardless of this fact, all types of natural Topaz remain to be severely undervalued and this Peachy Pink topaz is no exception. Naturally colored Topaz makes a great investment for the future simply because demand for natural gems continues to grow exponentially and supply is decreasing with many mines being totally depleted.
More News About Apache PERIDOT from Arizona
I continue to buy the entire output of this fairly new Peridot mine located in heart of the Apache Nation in Arizona. At this moment I have dozes of pounds of rough in several size and quality grades and my cutters finished first larger run of cut Arizona Peridots this month. Many of these were already pre-ordered by my regular customers but there is still plenty to be added to my ravenstein-germany.com website and my ravenstein-investment-gems eBay store.
Faceted gems are typically in 1.2 to 2.8ct some up to, or even over 10ct. One flawless, over 7ct. stone was sold to California few days ago and Im expecting more investment pieces like this in the near future.
For past 3 months I was working on pre-forming smaller, flawless pieces. I have several hundreds of these and I expect to see 0.7 to 1.5ct flawless Peridot, many in calibrated sizes. If you are a collector or jewelry maker looking for highest quality Arizona Peridot make sure to drop me a line.
Confetti SUNSTONE from Tanzania
This type of Sunstone has been gaining in popularity (and price) since 2012. I located and purchased few top gemmy pieces for one of my customers and remaining pieces, both rough and cut are now being offered in my website and eBay store. Popular Gem TV stations are offering cut gems in 500 USD per carat range. I decided to sell the same quality gems in 15 to 30 USD per carat range, which is, in my opinion, a more realistic wholesale pricing of these gems. If anyone is interested in more pieces of this type of Sunstone, I can get more directly from the mines.
More Top Quality PHENAKITE from Nigeria
Market with high quality Phenakite is booming and prices are increasing steadily. There was a several month decline in production, but since approximately 3 weeks ago, all mining activities fully resumed and I purchased several museum sized crystals and some good facet rough directly from the local miners. Many of the highest quality crystals are now sold to a NY based wholesaler but more Phenakite is due to arrive in US soon.
Recently, my most skilled cutter Ian finished several beautiful pieces of cut Phenakite. I decided to facet even more included pieces and I priced them very low for price-oriented collectors who wishes to add a big piece of faceted Phenakite into their collection. Phenakite is one of the worlds rarest gems and moderately to heavily included pieces in perfect European cuts still maintain a fairly high market value.
I will continue buying Phenakite until prices of rough reach unreasonable levels.
A true World Class Gem!
New Bohemian MOLDAVITE Lot
15 years ago I made one of my important market development predictions regarding Moldavite. I was urging all of my regular customers to invest in this green space origin gemstone because of future price increases, mainly due to a dramatically decreased supply. As with all of my gem market predictions, I was spot on. During past 10 years over 80% of once rich Moldavite deposits closed down and those few remaining are unable to keep up with the ever growing demand. Yes, Chinese do produce multiple metric tons of fake Moldavite annually, but most experienced buyers know the difference and they still demand the real Moldavite from Bohemia and Moravia in Czech Republic. After several months of searching I purchased nearly 3Lb of new freshly mined rough Moldavite. Beautiful pieces in great colors and perfect un-chipped surface. Few of these were turned into faceted stones, vast majority was left in its beautiful natural form.
Finding Moldavite at reasonable prices is very hard even for me, being born Czech and having 40 years experience with finding and mining Moldavite. I hope to be able to offer more beautiful pieces in months to come.
3 Lb of Red OREGON SUNSTONE Rough from Dust Devil Mine
Dust Devil mine has been known to produce the very best red and off-red Oregon Sunstone. To find this old 3Lb lot was a small miracle because if you go to Dust Devil today, you will be happy if you leave with handful of stones, if that. I sold part of this lot to another US wholesaler, rest was given to my cutters. I decided to keep my prices on 2014 levels so if you are looking for a great piece of Oregon Sunstone from this famous mine, this is your chance. More material is yet to be cut so stay in touch.
Worlds Largest CHROME PYROPE from Tanzania
Chrome Pyrope is very rare and highly valued type of Pyrope despite of its very deep pigeon blood color (larger pieces look blackish red with strong deep red flashes)
There are only 3 known major sources of this type of Garnet.
Some of your might be familiar with Bohemian Garnet. This Chrome Pyrope was mined in N. Bohemia since mid-ages and jewelry set with Bohemian Garnet was very popular and highly valued all across Europe.
Similarly looking Chrome Pyrope is also found in Eastern Arizona, marketed and sold as “Anthill Garnet”
Chrome Pyrope is never found in big sizes. Most faceted Chrome Pyrope from Bohemia or Arizona is below 1ct. size, only few pieces were bigger than 1.5ct. The new deposits of Chrome Pyrope in Tanzania made many collectors and jewelry makers very excited because sizes of these gems were considerably bigger compared to the European or American counterparts. Faceted gems over 1ct. are plentiful and there are some cut gems in 2ct. range and few in a quite amazing 3ct. size.
In summer 2015 I purchased nearly 5 Lb of top quality facet grade Chrome Pyrope rough directly from Tanzania. Part of this lot is still available, some beautiful gems were already cut in Europe.
Big, Highest Quality GARNETS from Malawi
Malawi is the Africa’s poorest country. Recent discovery of several types of Garnets is helping economy on local level and many farmers are digging for gems during the off season. Many of these new deposits depend on water supply so the mining is restricted by the rainy season which starts in fall and stops by early spring.
As with most other gems, I have a mine-direct contacts in Malawi and frankly, Im very excited about the sizes, clarity and colors of Garnets found in this small African nation. I pay a very fair prices to locals, therefore I get to buy the highest quality gem material obtainable. I feel very strongly about helping local people there, especially after seeing so many horrific examples of how the very poorest are exploited by Western companies and individuals. My goal is to return 20% of my profit back into the local communities. Most of us living in Europe or USA have no clue how bad life is for these people and struggle for basic survival is the everyday reality. So any of you buying a beautiful gem from Malawi will directly support those who need the help the most. I will reveal the actual numbers and community help projects right on my website.
I started buying Garnets from Malawi in larger quantities since beginning of this year. After comparing these gems with similar Garnets found in the world famous Umba Valley in Tanzania, I can say with absolute certainty that red and off-red (red orange, red pink, red purple) Garnets from Malawi are of the highest quality, superior to even the best gems found in Tanzania or Mozambique.
I sell most of these gems as rough to US investors because high quality Garnets are due for a great price increase in years to come. Pretty much all of this material is sold the moment I import a new batch into the USA. Still, I keep few medium sized pieces from each batch for my cutters and those customers who appreciate beauty of natural Garnets.
New Deposit of UMBALITE and RHODOLITE in Malawi
The most exciting news of 2015 was discovery of several small deposits of Rhodolite in Malawi. Because of my careful planning and involvement in all key African gem bearing countries, I’m usually one of the first people to know about a new gem deposit or mine. So before the news hit the market, I already imported many kilos of this amazing material into my EU and US stock. Pink, purple-pink and raspberry Rhodolite from Malawi is considered the best in the world by many professionals including myself. Heavy involvement of Chinese buyers flocking around these new locations is pushing prices sky high. Nevertheless, I’m still able to offer 0.5 to 2.0ct stones in perfect color for much less than anyone else and Im able to offer perfect large pieces in 60 to 100 USD per carat range. Similar stones are sold for 3x this amount by most big name dealers and prices will for sure grow further.
After comparing some of these brightly colored pink-purple Garnets to the famous and extremely expensive Umbalite from Tanzania I came into the conclusion that many of these Malawian gems can be considered Umbalite simply because there is virtually no difference between the original Tanzanian stones and the new gems from Malawi.
I will be offering most of these gems already faceted simply to avoid creating competition by selling the rough to others.
Future Plans and Developments
I can not reveal all of my plans and developments simply to avoid intervention from my competitors, but Im happy to share at least some of my future activities.
Purchase and development of Ravenstein Mining Co. Oregon Sunstone mine is going as planned.
Im leaving for Oregon mines on Sep.2, 2015. I will be buying multiple kilos of the best and rarest rough from Butte Basin mining region so some very exciting developments and news are due to be released soon.
Right after that Im leaving for Mexico to do a scheduled visit in the La Aurora mine. My plan is to further increase my Danburite stock in order to fulfill the growing demand from Asian wholesalers and from several US buyers as well.
I gathered dozes of pounds of top quality gem facet grade and my cutters will facet over 4000 new gems by end of January 2016, just in time for Tucson Gem Show.
Monthly output of Apache Peridot mine is growing and I plan on investing into some additional mining equipment to further increase and optimize the gem production.
Next trip to Africa is due by end of this year. My plan is to purchase and run another Rhodolite mine in Malawi. I will also be getting more gems from Tanzania, Namibia, Mozambique and Nigeria.
Please keep checking for new gemstone additions on St.Claire-Gems.com (Ravenstein-Germany.com) web site and my eBay store under Ravenstein-Investment-Gems. We add newly cut gems weekly, but as you might suspect, most gems never make it to the web site and they are sold soon after being cut and finished. Simply contact me about any of your gemstone needs.
Best Regards,
Ales P. Krivanek
Ravenstein Gem Co., owner
(All cut gem prices are based on current cost of rough. All prices can change without notice)
