Cuprian Tourmaline-Origin (Written 2002)

  To put this article in context.........I wrote this when Laurie and I had just bought our first Nigerian stones and several dealers were already trying to attach the name "paraiba" to this material

       To consider the importance of Cuprian Tourmaline one first must recap the history of Paraiba Tourmaline(in Below picture are approx 3cts Windex blue-7cts Green). In 1987 a deposit of Tourmaline was discovered in the northern province of Paraiba in Brazil. Deposits of Tourmaline in Brazil are commonplace, so what was it about Paraiba that  was so noteworthy? Colors in the blue and green spectrum were seen that had never been seen before in the Tourmaline family. The colors ranged from an intense "chrome" green, more reminiscent of Tsavorite, through incredible blue-greens to intense purple, as fine as the finest Tanzanite. When this material first appeared on the American market it was initially treated with much suspicion, but in no time at all it became the most prized of all stones by gem collectors. The gemological explanation for these extraordinary colors turned out to be the presence of copper as a trace element in the material. No Tourmaline on record before Paraiba had exhibited these colors and none had contained copper. The prices for these gemstones were further affected by the end of the production at the Paraiba mine within a couple of years. Current supply of this material is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent. Stones that changed hands for hundreds of dollars a carat in the early 90's, now trade for many thousands. At The Tucson Gem Show this February we saw a 10 carat unheated Paraiba, in a most extraordinary blue shade, that sold during the show for in excess of $45,000 per carat....and that's wholesale!! In 2001 a small pocket of Tourmaline was discovered in Nigeria. There have been many claims to have found the new "Paraiba" since 1989 but the deposit in Nigeria is the only one to have been confirmed as copper bearing. The gemstones found in this deposit do not have the same extraordinary range of colors found at Paraiba, but they do exhibit the wonderful blue-green colors that made Paraiba so famous. The Nigerian deposit is as close gemologicaly as nature has so far allowed. We decided to name the material from Nigeria "Cuprian Tourmaline" ( from the Latin cuprum, meaning copper) for a very good reason. It is copper bearing and therefore gemologicaly similar to Paraiba BUT it is not from the deposit in Brazil and as such should be distinguished as a unique material. Much of this production has been sold into the market as "Paraiba" under false pretenses. If  one searches the Internet for Paraiba one will come across many 'dealers' selling what they represent to be Paraiba. Unfortunately, if the material is copper bearing at all, it is almost always a pale and often included Nigerian stone. In its gem quality it is however a magnificent gemstone in its own right and deserves recognition as the special stone that it is.............Cuprian Tourmaline.