Black Spinel - A Useful Gem ?

[lonewoodminer]

I might be crazy but why isnt black Spinel more commonly used in place of some of the other black gem? It has all the properties of a great affordable gem. Compared to black onyx, it is natural (not dyed) and a bit harder. How does it compare to black sapphire? Seems most black sapphire is cabbed for the star effect but have seen a few faceted black sapphires that look very much like black spinel (by photo only so cant be sure without looking at it IRL). We have cut a few just to try them out and they look good - we are just getting some more cut now to see what we can do with them. What do others know of this one - it is obviously not as spectacular as the red or blue varieties but in comparison to other opaque black gems, it seems like a forgotten gem.

cheers
Andrew

 

[valeria101]

Don't see much of it at all - or much black sapphire (bar what is called "midnight" or downright 'blue" when it looks black). The nicer applications I can remember are cufflinks.

I would think black sapphire and spinel is harder to carve - so may not be suitable to replace onix across the board. But dome shaped black spinel looks nice - if only it received more design attention.

Can't remember of any publicized jewelry collection to have promoted black spinel, although black crystals are being pushed into high fashion (Svarowsky may have the price point, but black diamond pave are around too). It high spinel time, IMO

 

[mogok]

Hello,
Thailand is full of black spinel... It is called here "Nin".
You can find tons of these dark opaque stones in Kanchanaburi, in Houay Xai (Laos) and in other basaltic gem field in the area. Where black spinel is find sapphires are possible so people seach for black spinel in order to mine sapphires.
To come back to the subject there are really a lot of black spinel stuff in the night markets, tourist areas mounted on silver jewelry...
I have to say that i''m not really fond of these stones, but I was never fond of "mourning" or "Gothic" jewelry.

All the best,

 

[Richard M.]

To be only a little bit wry, I think faceted black spinel would be a great natural substitute for black diamond. Who could tell, LOL?

In a practical sense it would probably serve in inlays, intarsias, backing for opal triplets and doublets, etc. where a harder and more durable black material than dyed black chalcedony is desired. It also might be put to good use in bead-making if dense, clean rough of the proper size is available. Having polished quite a few spinels I suspect processing costs would be higher than for black "onyx" and that''s probably why it isn''t currently used for beads apart from limited demand for black beads.

Since much garnet sand is used as an industrial abrasive perhaps non-gemmy spinel might find an application there. It''s harder than garnet and both are cubic in crystal structure for likely similar abrasive qualities.

Carvings have been mentioned, and after that I''m fresh out of ideas for black spinel. Good luck! FYI, I recently received a 50-pound chunk of natural black chalcedony mined in Namibia. There''s a huge deposit there but its value is hardly worth the shipping cost.

Richard M.

 

[strmrdr]

About the only use I have for black gems is for eyes in the ruby heart and gold teddy bear pendants Im going to have made someday.

 

[rubydick]

Further to Vincent''s post, which was excellent, there are a number of different types of "nin" found in Thailand, not all of which are spinel. It''s been so long since I examined them, that I can''t remember all the different types, but the strongly magnetic type found at Bo Ploi near Kanchanaburi is considered the most valuable. Submetallic luster on those. I believe they are magnetite. Even at Bo Ploi, more than one type is found. And they have been cut and polished in Thailand for many decades and are often seen in jewelry.

The original "rediscovery" of corundums in Thailand is said to have occurred when some Shan from the Mogok area (known locally in Thailand as ''Gula'') were passing through the Chanthaburi area in the 19th century. They are said to have found some "nin" and knowing it often occurred with corundums, began heavy prospecting. The rest is history. Remnants of these original gula families are still living in Chanthaburi and in Pailin today one can see Buddhist temples which are built along Shan designs, again representing the influence of these people on the gem trade.

 

[lonewoodminer]

Thanks very much for all your excellent comments. It''s an idea thats always been in our minds to try and utilise the product of black spinel that is usually discarded in the mining operation. Always has seemed silly to us to throw it out but I guess we get into a routine and think it would be too hard to change.

Any thoughts on how this product could be marketed, we are cutting more quantity and setting some in silver jewellery.
Our couple of ideas are to perhaps give it a brand name and to get larger quanitys of calibrated cut stone to try and offer around the wholesale market.

cheers
Andrew

 

[mogok]

Hello,
If you are interested to get large quantity of black spinel from Kanchanabury you can contact the main mining operation there which is SAP... They produce very large quantities of black spinel.
I went to visit the mining operation recently and will soon put some infos and photos on AIGS website.
Whatever currently you can already read the the small article I post on the news section:
AIGS lab news section

All the best,

 

[Sasori]

If lead glass crystal can sell for hundreds.. why not black spinel? Just the correct marketing technique.

Why not get a designer? come out with a whole range of black spinel jewellery, pay some well known actress to wear them? Anyway spinel comes in much bigger size than diamonds, corundum, might as well capitalise on it.

Come up with a fancy name? Not link to spinel or diamond? Maybe call it shadownite, nite stone etc.