Moonstones.

[Richard M.]

Date: 5/27/2005 7:56:21 PM
Author: belle

Date: 5/27/2005 4:42:20 PM


Richard M.

wow! right in my backyard!

do you know, or are you able to say, where about the mining area is located?

I might be able to point you in the general direction if I knew whether you lived in New Mexico or Virginia!

 

[belle]

well, as my luck would have it, i am from where the ground is VERY HARD.... in new mexico!

 

[tanuki]

This is a timely thread for me to be reading right now. My daughter has a June birthday and for some unknown reason June seems to have three birthstones: Pearl, alexandrite, and moonstone. I never realized moonstone was so beautiful. I just love the color. Too bad I already ordered that alexandrite ring. Maybe next year.

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 5/27/2005 8:59:44 PM
Author: belle
well, as my luck would have it, i am from where the ground is VERY HARD.... in new mexico!

My info goes back to 1976 so the trail status is probably out of date, but here ya go!:

Black Range, Grant County, near the head of Raab Canyon about 7.4 air miles (12 km) northeast of Mimbres. The area may be reached via trail leading northwest from the road between San Lorenzo and Kingston.

If you do try it be sure to check with the appropriate agencies (BLM, Forest Service) to make sure access and "diggin''" are legal. I seem to recall reading somewhere the area had been put off-limits to the public but I may be wrong. Or it may be under private claim.

Richard M.

 

[Translucent]

Yes, the lady wears the necklace well, doesn''t she? But the stone is not adularia moonstone nor does it display adularescence. It''s a type of labradorite from India and the color effect is labradorescence. The two effects are not really similar because these stones display a ''patchy'' floating color while adularescence suffuses the entire stone. Both are beautiful in their unique ways.


My image shows a top quality of this material which is marketed as ''Rainbow Moonstone,'' a misleading yet descriptive name: it''s not really moonstone but select gems occur in a rainbow of colors: red, orange, green, yellow, etc. They are quite hard to find and are expensive for this class of stones.


Real blue adularia, a type of microcline feldspar once produced in large quantity from northern Burma and Meetiyagoda, Sri Lanka, is now rather scarce as both sources have played out although a few nice gems are still on the market. It is very popular in Europe, especially Germany, since the name comes from the old Mt. Adular in Switzerland, an early source.


The hardness of this plagioclase is about Mohs 6 and like all feldspars it can split along cleavage planes when struck sharply. I wouldn''t recommend it for rings but it makes wonderful earrings, pins and necklaces, as we have seen above.


Richard M.

This is just fascinating, Richard! I happened to have purchased a "Rainbow Moonstone" of very fine quality like the ones in your pic.
I truely though it was a real moonstone. I think the retailer who sold it to me didn''t quite expand on the types of so called moonstone there
are out there. By omission, of course. Wow, I really thought I had the real thing. Boy, the stuff you learn here on Pricescope! Priceless!

This afternoon I took the stone to be examined by a friend of mine who is an amateur mineral nut(just to make sure)
and he took one quick look at the thing and said "spectrolite" not moonstone.

 

[Edward Bristol]

I wish we could get such nice moonstones in Sri Lanka.

To be honest, most here are of dully gray and little blue.

We so far found only one that was worth the work and he couldn''t compete with the ones shown. Anyhow, they are so difficult to get on a photo....

Ed Bristol
www.wildfishgems.com

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 5/27/2005 11:24:08 PM
Author: Translucent



I truely though it was a real moonstone. I think the retailer who sold it to me didn''t quite expand on the types of so called moonstone there

are out there. By omission, of course. Wow, I really thought I had the real thing. Boy, the stuff you learn here on Pricescope! Priceless!

You have the "real thing." It''s just a very fine quality of labradorite and not traditional moonstone. Very few retailers know the difference -- the feldspar family is about as complicated as any mineral can be!

Top-end "Rainbows" aren''t necessarily less expensive than old-time adularia moonstones. They''re often more expensive, in fact, especially since the best go to Europe where they command much higher prices than in the U.S. The entirely transparent stones awash with primary reds or oranges or greens or fine blue are really beautiful and bring "top Euro."

Richard M.

 

[belle]

Date: 5/27/2005 9:58:58 PM
Author: Richard M.

Date: 5/27/2005 8:59:44 PM
Author: belle
well, as my luck would have it, i am from where the ground is VERY HARD.... in new mexico!

My info goes back to 1976 so the trail status is probably out of date, but here ya go!:

Black Range, Grant County, near the head of Raab Canyon about 7.4 air miles (12 km) northeast of Mimbres. The area may be reached via trail leading northwest from the road between San Lorenzo and Kingston.

If you do try it be sure to check with the appropriate agencies (BLM, Forest Service) to make sure access and ''diggin'''' are legal. I seem to recall reading somewhere the area had been put off-limits to the public but I may be wrong. Or it may be under private claim.

Richard M.

awesome! thanks for the info richard!

 

[lonewoodminer]

Hi
Wow Richard thanks for the imformation on moonstone, Very interesting you must know your stuff!!

Cheers Andrew Lane
www.aussiesapphire.com.au

 

[Sagebrush]

Richard,

Yes, very interesting exposition on moonstone. Might make a good handle, "Moonstone" much better than Richard which, after all is a boring sort of name. My apoligies for the mis-information, a glance at the "A" chart before posting would have bee in order. Its what I get for posting the forum before breakfast.

Had no idea about the Virginia or New Mexico deposits. Where are the Virginia deposits located? I take it you did some moonstone cutting in your youth?

 

[valeria101]

Date: 5/28/2005 1:19:48 AM
Author: Richard M.

Date: 5/27/2005 11:24:08 PM
Author: Translucent

I truely though it was a real moonstone.

You have the ''real thing.''

Second that. The name "moonstone" was never in question for a range of minerals and looks. "Feldspars" might be the common denominator there, if there is need for one. You''ve got the finest kind...

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 5/28/2005 7:30:25 AM
Author: Richard W. Wise
Richard,


Yes, very interesting exposition on moonstone. Might make a good handle, ''Moonstone'' much better than Richard which, after all is a boring sort of name. Had no idea about the Virginia or New Mexico deposits. Where are the Virginia deposits located? I take it you did some moonstone cutting in your youth?

Hi Richard,

Hey, if "Richard''s" boring to you I''ll bequeath you the nick "Moonstone" -- my gem involvements and interests are much broader than that!

There are scattered references to the Virginia occurrence in gem literature. Sinkankas is most specific, saying "Splendid moonstone, similar in quality to that of Ceylon, has been recently recovered (195 from the gravels of a small creek on the O.W. Harris Mica Mine Farm near Oliver, [Hanover] Co."

There are lots of feldspar-bearing pegmatites in the area and he speculated the moonstone deposits could be extensive. But since neither you nor I have heard of a great "strike" from that region I doubt it''s ever amounted to much except perhaps to hobby collectors. I''ve also heard of good blue sheen moonstone being found in the famous Amelia pegmatites and alluvium.

Yes, I''ve cut a few moonstones, mainly just for the fun and challenge. I like the cat''s-eye and star types. The image shows an 8.15 ct. greenish orthoclase moonstone from India. I stock a number of these interesting stones.

Richard M.

 

[Translucent]

Since we are on the topic of feldspars, can someone give me some more info about a couple of uncut chunks of yellow orthoclase I
have. They are pretty big, clear and from Madagascar. Has anyone cut one of these?

They are funny chunks, kind of oily looking and in if you view them from different angles, you can see things that look like rainbow
fishscales floating around in them. Really cool, but what are these rainbow things, and if the stone is cut, will they disappear?

 

[MJO]

They are about the same as straw Oregon sunstone and are easy to cut and polish.

I think the rainbows are cracks in the stone and will and should be cut out. Either that or in rare instances I have seen growth plains in the stone that refract light differently and cause a prisim, rainbow effect when oriented the right way.

 

[Richard M.]

This 5.39 carat radiant cut from my stock is Madagascar orthoclase. It''s very beautiful and has unexpected visual "pop" for such low RI material. I have cut stones up to nearly 10 carats but much larger ones exist.

I believe MJO''s right about the similarity to Oregon yellow sunstone which I believe is labradorite. It''s also similar to the large facet-grade New Mexico and Mexican bytownite xls.

He''s also right about the interference colors from cleavage planes. Only the totally clean areas of the crystals should be faceted and the faceter should preform and rough-in facets gently so as not to open new cleavages. Actually, ortholase surprised me by being much tougher on the wheel than expected.

Richard M.

 

[mogok]

Hello everybody,
I was back from Sri lanka yesterday and I discover here an interesting discussion about moonstones. Nice!
Moonstones were one of my favorites gems while I was studying gemology in Burma. Mogok is producing such nice stones... But of course I heard about Sri Lankan gems. One of the objectives of this trip was to visit the famous moonstones mines in Metiyagoda and to find out if they were closed or not, and if the wonderful moonstones everybody was telling me about was as good as the burmese wonders I''ve seen.
You can now visit the Metiyagoda moonstones mine visiting the gallery I just put on line:
Trip to Sri Lanka

After speaking with major moonstones dealers and gemologists in Sri Lanka and visiting the mines in Metiyagoda, things have become more clear to me: metiyagoda now produce only small size "blue moonstones" of the best quality. I mean with a completly colorless body color and a strong blue sheen. Large gems of this type were mined in the upper layers of the mine, but from the deep layers that are mined now only highly inlcuded material is recovered, so when clean stones are found they are most of the time very small.
An other mining area in Sri Lanka: Dumbara near Matale in the center of the island produce some fine moonstones with a very good "crystal" (see Richard Wise for more precision about this term

) but if large stones can be found they are usually of the silvery type.
Currenlty most of the large material blue moonstones in the markets seems to come from a remote border area in Tanzania but the material I''ve seen does not present the colorless body color of the best Sri Lankan or Burmese gems. These stones body color is more brownish as some material I saw few months ago that was told to me to come from Namibia.

To my knowledge, now Mogok in Burma is the only place were fine gem quality moonstones of more than 10 carats can be found. But even there gem quality material is very difficult to find as many of the gem found there present some fissures, inclusions or cleavage.

Few years ago while working as a gem and crystal buyer for gemwow.com I''ve bought many nice Burmese moonstones as Ana nicely said on one of her post in this topic, but most of them are sold already to my knowledge. Most of them went to Japan which is now the main market for quality moonstones.

All the best,

 

[valeria101]

Who could have known moonstone will turn out so popular !

How about Australian moonstone ? (link to AG refference)
I know Queensland has quite some reputation for rainbow moonstone, but how much and how good are these anyway ?

 

[mogok]

Hi Ana,
Thanks for this link! I began my recent trip to Sri Lanka by attending the "Gemmological Association of Autralia" conference in Colombo where I was able to see some interesting presentation about Sri lankan and Australian gem wealth by leading gemmologists of these countries. It was a very good way to begin this trip to Sri Lanka.
I had a discussion about moonstones with several Australian gemologists that told me that some very fine moonstones were produced in their country. Sadly they were not able to show me any... But looking at your link the moonstone with blue sheen presented on fig 9 looks very attractive!
I guess that I''ve to way to go to Australia may be next year in order to find out about that or may be some Australian visitors here could help us to dig on this subject!
I really love fine moonstones...

All the best,

 

[MINE!!]

So can anyone suggest where I might be able to purchase some good quality yummy moonstones for wedding jewelry?

 

[Richard M.]

Hi Andrew,

I began a post to you yesterday saying that since you Ozzies have more than your share of other fine gem deposits, you probably have huge reserves of real adularia moonstone as well. Any place that produces diamonds, including rare pink-to-red ones; 95% of the world''s finest light, dark and black opal; fine blue and particolored sapphires and much more, probably has real moonstone too.

Lo and behold I read Ana''s post this morning! You live on such a huge, little-prospected continent that more fine material will probably be found in the future. I''d love to go fossicking there -- I might even try to learn to play the didgeridoo!

Richard M.