History of the Paraiba Tourmaline and Mozambique Copper Bearing Tourmalines
Paraiba Tourmalines were not discovered until fairly recently, in 1989, in Paraiba, Brazil by gem miner Heitor Dimas Barbosa. Digging efforts in the Paraiba state had actually begun five years earlier.
It wasn’t in 2003 that other sources of the Paraiba tourmaline were discovered. Gemstone supplier Moussa Konate unknowingly shipped to the United States the first Paraiba Tourmalines from Mozambique. (Or Bruce A. Fry sent his color changing tourmalines to the GIA to be analyzed). In 2005, Nigeria supplied its own set of gemstones to the gem market. They were first discovered in Nigeria five years earlier.
The Paraiba Tourmaline derives it vivid blue color to its high copper content. The German Foundation for Gemstone Research has found that Paraiba Tourmalines have a high gold content, even proportionally higher than the earth’s crust: 8.6 parts per million for the Paraiba against the Earth’s 0.007 parts per million.
Some sectors in the gemstone industry question whether the Paraiba tourmalines from Africa should really classified as Paraiba tourmalines. Any doubts about the authenticity of the gems from Africa, however, are quelled by results of previously conducted gemological testing between the Paraiba stones from Brazil and Africa. Semi-quantitative chemical data analysis cannot distinguish which stones are coming from Brazil, or Mozambique or Nigeria. Their minute chemical differences can only be revealed through a LA-ICP-MS spectrometry test.
Paraiba Tourmalines are expensive and rare, precisely because ever since their discovery, there have been little progress in the mines that produce them. The first gems were mined only in a spot as large as a football field, which is located near the village of São José da Batalha in Paraiba. This mine has not consistently produced the Paraiba stones. The Paraiba mines in Africa are also not consistent in their supply.
Miners have to dig, by hand tunnels, up to 60 meters deep. As for the stones themselves, they can be found only in very thin linings in the mine.
So it really does not make much difference if a new source for the Paraiba Tourmaline is found. This gemstone will remain rare and expensive.
