Types of Quartz Gemstones
Alexandrite Gemstone is a rare variety of the mineral Chrysoberyl & is a strongly pleochroic gem. Color-changing alexandrite is nature’s magic trick.
Amethyst is the purple variety of the mineral Quartz, and is its most famous and valuable gem variety. Quartz also contains other gemstones such as Citrine, Rose Quartz, and Smoky Quartz. The color of Amethyst is most often caused by iron impurities, though it can also be colored by natural radiation exposure.
Ametrine: Beautiful ametrine gemstones. The center stone is a traditional 50/50 split of amethyst and citrine. The stones on the left and right are artistic cuts that allow light entering the stone to pass through purple amethyst and yellow citrine and blend into beautiful shades of orange, magenta, peach, and a range of other colors.
Basalt Gemstones & Minerals The following is a list of Basalt gems and minerals listed in our database. Click the pictures to get full data, click the X to remove the gem from the list.
Benitoite is a rare gemstone, and for all practical purposes only comes from a single limited deposit in California. It is a relatively new gemstone, and was first discovered in 1907. Benitoite gemstones have a sapphire-blue color, and can have very good transparency and luster.
Black opal is one of the many fascinating varieties of opal available today and it also happens to be one of the most popular varieties. In 2008, Australia officially recognized this and proclaimed black opal to be the official state gemstone for New South Wales.
The Gemstone Citrine Citrine is the yellow to orange variety of Quartz. Natural Citrine is not common; most Citrine on the gem market is produced by heat treating Amethyst and Smoky Quartz.
Quartz gemstones are very attractive, durable and hard. Also in most cases, quartz is fairly inexpensive and available in very large sizes. Some quartz varieties can be extremely rare, while others are very readily available. Quartz is an extremely versatile material that can be cut and carved into many shapes and sizes.
Garnet has been mined in western Rajasthan in northwestern India for the past 200 years, but mainly for the gemstone grade stones. Abrasive garnet was mainly mined as a secondary product while mining for gem garnets and was used as lapping and polishing media for the glass industries.
Kornerupine is a rare magnesium aluminum borosilicate gemstone type that is chemically close in composition to grandidierite, as is dumortierite, an aluminum borate silicate mineral that is intergrown with quartz and sold as the rare gemstone, dumortierite quartz.
Quartz gemstones are found in locations all around the world. Quartz is a major constituent of granite and other igneous rock. It is also commonly found in sedimentary rock and is a common component of metamorphic rock.
Jadeite Gemstone and Jewelry Design Ideas Back to Top The versatility of jadeite makes it ideal for a variety of uses. Jadeite is often cut en cabochon, especially for use in stunning jadeite cabochon rings, or into spheres or discs, for earrings, pendants and necklaces.
The minerals in the water slowly crystallize out into gemstones. What kind of gemstones form depends on what minerals are in the water. Calcite, crystallized from water containing dissolved calcium minerals, is the most common, since limestone itself is made of calcium carbonate.
Sardonyx: Sardonyx is a gem variety of reddish-brown colored sard with white or black banded chalcedony or onyx, used to make cameo with the raised black, red, or brown background. It is an example of a layer stone subvariety of Chalcedony, which in turn is a cryptocrystalline variety of Quartz.
Milky Quartz Milky Quartz is the white, translucent to opaque variety of Quartz. Though very common in nature, it is not used as a gemstone. Rutilated Quartz Colorless Quartz with golden yellow Rutile inclusions, as hairlike growths within the gemstone, are known as Rutilated Quartz.
Painite forms elongated, pseudo-orthorhombic transparent deep garnet-red crystals. Pleochroism is ruby-red and pale brownish orange or pale red-orange. Painite was recognized as the rarest gem material on Earth, however many more stones have since been found.
Pearls are organic gemstones that are formed by shelled molluscs; mainly bivalved oysters and mussels. Pearls are made up of nacre (mother-of-pearl) which is mostly aragonite (calcium carbonate) and conchiolin (complex proteins that form mollusc shells). The aragonite microcrystals build up around an irritant.
This usage is falling out of favor but remains in older textbooks and other older publications. The name "quartz arenite" is a more appropriate and less confusing name for these rocks. It is often difficult or impossible to differentiate quartz arenite from quartzite. The transition of sandstone into quartzite is a gradual process.
Red beryl is an extremely rare variety of beryl that receives its red color from trace amounts of manganese. In the entire world, crystals suitable for cutting gems have been found in only one location, the Ruby-Violet claims in the Wah Wah Mountains of Beaver County, Utah.
Rock Crystal is a traditional name given to water-clear crystalline quartz. The name Crystal comes from the Greek for "ice", as it was believed that Rock Crystal was eternally frozen. Rock Crystals weighing many tons have been found. Cuttable material is rare.
Star Rose Quartz: An oval-shaped cabochon of rose quartz exhibiting beautiful color and a spectacular six-ray star. This gem is from the collection of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and this Creative Commons Atribution photo was taken by andytang20.
It is standard industry practice to heat treat Sapphire gemstones, and most Sapphires used as gemstones have been heat treated. Sapphire with a natural, unheated color is much more valuable then the heat treated material, and gemstones of good quality can be extremely costly.
The Gemstone Rutilated Quartz Rutilated Quartz is a transparent Quartz with golden yellow Rutile inclusions that are in hairlike growths. The Rutile inclusions range from thin, sparse, and parallel, to thick, dense, and crisscrossed, and everything in-between.
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) mineral particles or rock fragments.. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering processes at the Earth's surface, as seen in Bowen's reaction series.
Quartz gemstones are found in locations all around the world. Quartz is a major constituent of granite and other igneous rock. It is also commonly found in sedimentary rock and is a common component of metamorphic rock.
Smoky quartz is an inexpensive gem material because it is abundant, found in many locations, and its brown color is not currently in high demand. It is often found in large crystals of excellent transparency with few inclusions.
World-famous spinel gemstones include the Black Prince's Ruby, which is a 170 carat red spinel set into the English state crown and displayed in the Tower of London. The Samarian Spinel is believed to be the largest fine spinel in the world.
Taaffeite is among the rarest gemstones of the world. Only first identified as a separate gemstone in 1945, before that it was thought to be a variety of spinel. What is Taaffeite? The taaffeite gemstone (pronounced TAR-fight) is purple to red and was first discovered in 1945.