Tanzanite- The new found gemstone

Origins and General Information
Tanzanite is one of the most recently discovered gemstones and is coveted by specialists as the 'gemstone of the 20th century.

The stone’s discovery has an interesting history attached to it. The belief is that millions of years ago, crystal deposits were formed during the metamorphic process of schists, gneisses and quartzites and completely hidden to the human eye. Then, more recent narrative suggests that in 1967, Ali Juuyawatu, a local Maasai tribesman, found a piece of translucent crystal at a ridge near Merarani and at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Fascinated by its blue-violet hue, he shared his find with Manuel D'Souza, a tailor by profession and prospector by passion, who was looking for rubies in the region. Realising that the mineral was not olivine (peridot) the stones found their way across the continent to New York at Saks. The Gemological Institute of America identified the samples as a variety of the mineral zoisite and similar observations were made by other leading museums and universities. However, the first person to correctly identify the stone was a Tanzanian government geologist in Dodoma.
Saks got two of the samples facetted and showed them to Henry Platt of Tiffany & Co. who was impressed with the beauty of the gem and coined it ‘tanzanite’, in honor of the country of its origin and thereby making the stone more marketable to the public.


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