APATITE - A Rare Gem
Apatite is a fairly uncommon gemstone, and you
will only rarely see it offered for sale in the typical commercial jewelry
stores. However, in recent years some of the TV jewelry and gemstone home
shopping networks have offered a variety of this gem known as neon apatite.
This is a very attractive form of this gemstone, and as a result, it has
gained some level of popularity because of that exposure.
Apatite is a very soft and heat sensitive gemstone, and it is not
recommended for wear in rings are bracelets. It is however perfectly
suitable for setting in a pendant or earrings. While not fragile in any
way, a reasonable amount of care is necessary to insure the gem is not
damaged, which is why it is not recommended for use in rings are bracelets.
It has a hardness of five on a scale of one to 10.
Brazil and Mexico have been the traditional sources of gem quality
apatite. The Brazilian stones are a medium dark to dark, strongly saturated
blue color, somewhat like a deep sapphire type of color. They are also
small, and there is never been much of this deep blue material on the
gemstone market. Deep blue stones more than about four carats in size are
unusual. The Mexican apatite comes from an iron mine and is deep
golden-yellow in color. In the 1970s and 80s, a fairly large amount of the
Mexican yellow apatite was produced. They are available in somewhat larger
sizes, and deep yellow stones up to about 30 carats in size are sometimes
found on the gemstone market. Occasionally gems from other colors are found
in small deposits from worldwide locations. Small amounts of apatite have
been mined in Canada, Europe, and the state of Maine in the US. There
is also a cats eye apatite from Tanzania, east Africa that forms a very good
eye. It comes in large sizes, but unfortunately there is very little of this
form of apatite on the market. |
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The
Discovery of Neon Apatite
In the 1980s an important new discovery of this gem was made on the
island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa. This bright, well saturated
electric blue to blue-green colored stone became known as neon apatite. The
color is natural, and no treatments or alterations are required to achieve
it. The color is close to that seen in the best Paraiba tourmaline, and is
very attractive, but of course at a price which is only a tiny fraction of
that of Paraiba Tourmaline. So if you are interested in that bright color,
but cant afford the $20,000 per carat for Paraiba, then Neon Apatite is a
reasonable and fully natural alternative. These electric colored stones have
become by far the best known variety of this gem. While smaller stones in
the one to 2 carat range are not unusual, neon apatite gemstones larger than
about 10 carats are rare. The Madagascar deposits were heavily mined for a
period of about 10 years and produced quite a bit of gem material. However,
most of the production has now ceased and the deposit is generally
considered mined out. During the time of production, prices were
comparatively low. Prices for gem quality neon apatite are slowly beginning
to increase because of the popularity of this gem and the lack of new
supply. |
Apatite
as an Important Industrial Rock
While the gemstone version is not
all that common, apatite is actually a fairly standard rock forming mineral.
For many years opaque, crystallized, non-gem apatite has been mined and used
extensively as an industrial source of phosphate both for fertilizer as well
as other
chemicals which contain phosphate. Another important and interesting fact is
that it is apatite that makes our bones and teeth hard. The phosphate minerals which make up
human bones and teeth are members of the apatite mineral group. This
group is composed of three different minerals depending on the predominance
of either fluorine, chlorine or the hydroxyl group. These ions can freely
substitute in the crystal lattice and all three are usually present in every
specimen although a few specimens have been close to 100% in one or the
other. The individual names of the minerals in the apatite group are Fluorapatite,
Chlorapatite and Hydroxylapatite. The three members are usually considered
together due to the difficulty in distinguishing them in hand samples using
ordinary methods. All of the apatite group members crystallize in hexagonal
form. |