Tourmaline is a widely popular gemstone that can be found in most gemstone stores and boutiques across the world.In fact, tourmaline is not a single mineral, but a group of boron silicate minerals that vary in chemical structure. It occurs in many different colors, such as white, blue, red, pink, yellow, orange, green, blue, gray, black or colorless, and sometimes a single gemstone can be multicolored.
Tourmaline is often used in different types of jewelry, such as rings, pendants, bracelets, and more. Its hardness of 7 to 7.5 on Mohs scale, combined with its clarity and variety of colors, make it a popular gemstone for jewelry use.
Because of its availability, tourmaline's price is typically not very high, making it one of the more affordable gemstones. As with most other gems, tourmaline's value is strongly affected by color and size, meaning that larger specimens of rare colors can easily become much more expensive than the average tourmaline exemplar. Colored tourmaline always displays pleochroism, i.e. a difference of colors based on the viewing angle. Some tourmaline stones have inclusions, creating a cat's eye effect when polished.
One of the highest prized varieties of tourmaline is the blue Paraiba Tourmaline, found in Brazil. Brazil is one of the most important producers and exporters of tourmaline. Additionally, there are a number of mining locations the US, Afghanistan, Mozambique, and Namibia, among other countries.
Select gemstone type: