Taaffeite is a mineral with a hardness of 8 out of 10 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness [?]. These Hexagonally structured gems are made of barium manganese aluminum oxide, their full chemical compound being BeMg3Al8O16.

Taaffeite is a very rare beryllium magnesium aluminum mineral. No other mineral has both beryllium and magnesium in its composition. It is one of the few gems to be discovered as a faceted stone instead of a rough, as most gemstones are. Rarely cut as a gem, taaffeite looks like a mauve-colored spinel, and its absorption spectrum is similar to it. But gemologists know they've found taaffeite when a stone thought to be spinel is found to be doubly refractive.

Taaffeite forms pink, mauve, or lilac, red to brown transparent to translucent hexagonal crystals. It is very hard, transparent to translucent, and has vitreous luster. It may also appear as colorless, purple, greenish, bluish-violet, bluish, and reddish. It shows dichroism, bluish in daylight and reddish in artificial light.

Taaffeite is found in Hunan Province (China), Sri Lanka, Myanmar, eastern Siberia (Russia), and South Australia.

There are taaffeite inclusions in Sri Lankan stones, in garnet, muscovite, apatite, phlogopite, zircon, spinel, healed fractures, fingerprints of negative crystals.

This rare mineral occurs in gem gravels or in skarns at the contact between sedimentary dolomite rock and and limestones with beryllium-bearing granite. It also occurs in carbonate rocks alongside fluorite, mica, spinel and tourmaline.

The gem gravels yielding taaffeite are located in Sri Lanka. A purple brown chatoyant was found there, the eye arising from parallel reflective inclusions combined with striations. Faceted crystals have also been found near Mt. Painter, Southern Australia. Lower-quality taaffeite has been found in China. Recent authorities use the name magnesio-taaffeite.

Unusually the type species is a faceted stone, originally believed to be spinel.

The specific gravity [?] for Taaffeite is 3.61, it's refractive index [?] is 1.72-1.77, and it's double refraction [?] is 0.004.

History

Taaffeite is named for its discoverer, Count Charles Richard Taaffe. He first came across a faceted stone while sorting out a batch of spinel from a jeweler in 1945. For many years after, taaffeite was known only in a few samples and became famous as one of the rarest gems in the world. It was formerly called taprobanite.


The confusion between spinel and taaffeite is understandable as the two share very similar physical properties. The crucial difference is that taaffeite is doubly refractive while spinel is singly refractive.

Industrial Usages

Because of its distinction as being one of the rarest minerals, taaffeite is only used as a gemstone.

You May Also Like...

Anglesite

Anglesite: Anglesite is a very soft gem just slightly harder than gold and silver and as such it does not hold facets well/cut easily. Because of its softness it tends to scratch, and these scratches will take away from the value and appearance of this gem. Once cut this gem will not do well in rings as it will quickly become scratched and its edges worn round. This gem is usually colorless or clear, but (read full)

Benitoite

Benitoite: Benitoite is a rare gemstone / mineral that fluoresces when lit by black lights. It gets its name from San Benito County, California where it was first found. This gem is almost always blue (it was originally thought to be a sapphire) but also has variations in purple, pink, and clear. Gem prices seem to fluctuate but a few hundred dollars per half ct is common. Why so expensive? The quality gem (read full)

Almandine

Almandine: Almandine or Almandite is a member of the Garnet group, and is associated with the planet Pluto. Low quality pyrope is often cataloged and sold as Almandine. Almandine is generally darker than pyrope. Almandine colors vary from red to dark red, purple to purplish red, and even pink. Almandine is valued fairly low at somewhere between $5 and $225 a carat all dependent upon clarity, color, cut, an (read full)

Amblygonite

Amblygonite: Amblygonite is a not so popular gem whose greek name means crooked. It comes in green, clear, yellow, and even purple. Older cut specimens may have slightly rounded facet edges due to the gems lack hardness (6 of 10). Amblygonite can be found in Brazil, France, the United States, Burma, and even Sweden. It may be confused easily with Brazilianite. (read full)

Amethyst

Amethyst: Amethyst is the most coveted stone in the quartz group, and it is sometimes confused with beryl. It is usually found layered with milky quartz, and its color varies from purple to violet. It is sometimes sold as Ametrine, but this is actually a combined variation of 2 gems; Amethyst and Citrine. Amethyst like Agate Chalcedony can be found in geodes. There are many types of synthetic Amethyst aro (read full)

Tags

purpletaaffeiteberylliummagnesiumaluminumfacetedmauvelilacbirefringenttaprobaniterarestspinelchatoyantbarium manganese aluminum oxide

Terms

Double Refraction or dr is the ability of a mineral to separate a refracted ray of light into 2 rays. If held over an image or text it will display the object 2x its original size.

Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness is the standard used to categorize a mineral's ability to resist scratching. It gets its name from Friedrich Mohs, the German geologist who first created the scale.

RI or Refractive Index defines light's ability to move through the mineral or in a general sense, any material.

SG or Specific Gravity is the ratio of the weight of any substance to that of pure water at temperature of 3.98°C(39.2°F) and standard atmospheric pressure. This is important to note when actively seeking these minerals in the wild. Minerals with a higher SG will settle below material with a lower sg over time.