Tucson 2000 Update

This year's Tucson shows did not introduce any new exciting gem materials. Blue Opal from Peru, lots of Chinese freshwater pearls in larger sizes and African pink tourmaline were readily available at good prices.

However, of great concern among gemmologists were gem treatments, in particular the GE POL diamonds. The SSEF IIa Diamond Spotter is a simple device which may help in the identification process.

For the gemmologist the following images of Russian grown gemstones might be of interest. We will report about the Russian moissanite developments in the near future.

Is this blue garnet? Not quite - these are Russian grown GGGs in very vivid colours	Synthetic forsterite is a very good tanzanite simulant
Russian grown seedless hydrothermal pink sapphire	Yellow synthetic diamond of Russian origin
Blue and white synthetic diamond crystals; they are electrically conductive (type IIb) and test positive with the moissanite tester	Synthetic moissanite from Russia
Closeup view of moissanite crystals	The synthetic moissanite crystals of Russian production are rather small at this time and possess a yellowish to greenish colour. Very interesting are the thin platelets which were retrieved from the tube after cooling down. The thicker ones were suitable for cutting. However, it will take some time until we will see larger gem quality synthetic moissanite appear in the market-place. Images by Wolf Kuehn February 2000