The Price War of Paraíba Africana Tourmaline
I am overloaded with gem information from my recent trip to Tucson for the world’s largest congregation of gem and mineral shows – so I have to start spilling my notes today. And I will begin by discussing some thoughts on the tourmalines from Mozambique – THE hot topic of Tucson. It was talked about for several reasons: 1.) they’re pretty! 2.) they were being called “Paraíba” but they’re not from Brazil, and 3.) the asking prices for the gems were all over the place, which then created a mini price war … “if there’s so much of this stuff, then why’s it so expensive?”
They are absolutely beautiful. Bright robin’s egg blue, deep lavender, and minty green. OK, maybe not as beautiful as the incredibly electrifying “Scope green” and “Windex blue” colors of the top quality that came from Paraíba Brazil, but still…If I am shown Mozambique stones for $5,000/carat or Brazilian stones for $30,000/carat, I do have a choice.
They are being called “Paraíba tourmaline” because they look similar to and have similar chemistry of those found in the state of Paraíba Brazil. (Chemistry = color causing trace amounts of copper, aka “copper bearing,” and some manganese… but no one really mentions manganese, except for those who work in the gem labs identifying this stuff.)
What was very interesting was to hear dealers, retailers, jewelers, and gemologists, all talking about whether or not they are as nice as the original Brazilian material, and how prices were “too high” – “It’s tourmaline for goodness sake.” “You’re going to pay how much?”
And we saw prices dropping from the opening bell of the AGTA show. I was told that gems that started out at $3,000/carat to $5,000/carat were down to $1,500/carat to $3,000/carat by the end of the show. They said prices were dropping because so many dealers had the material, and competition was fierce.
My thoughts on this year’s tourmaline pricing war stem from two memories – one, the memory of the old raspberry-color tourmaline from Nigeria. Do you remember those stones? It was a find of beautiful tourmalines several years back. I don’t remember the price. That’s not what’s important. It’s the fact that if you have some, you are the lucky one, no matter what you paid for it - because I haven’t seen any of it for years. They mined it for a few months, and then… no more stones. But at the time, everyone was saying it was too expensive, and that there was “so much of it.”
The second memory is of a time back in the mid 80s, when some guy showed me two huge parcels of Brazilian alexandrite. Great color, Carat sized stones. And get this…$1,200/carat. That’s right. $1,200/carat. Today, that same material is priced thousands of dollars higher, I should have bought everything he had. But I was younger, no budget, and most of all, thought “Wow, there’s so much of this material. I wonder how low the price is going to get so I can get a real bargain.” The bargain was in front of me.
And I think this is what’s happening with the Mozambique “Paraíba” tourmalines. Great color, plenty of material, prices… well, your guess is as good as mine as to whether it’s a good price. But if I had the budget, and if I were still in retail, I would buy up as much as I could, and sell a little now, and hold onto as much as I could for the next several years. My hunch is that the mines will dry up soon, and then you’ll end up having the only material in town. What’s the price now?
crusty geologist commented:
Gary Roskin commented:
Dear Busyman, Gemstones are works of art. Each one is unique. Its
color, its size, its shape, the quality of the lapidary artist's
work, etc.... There is no "going rate," international, or
otherwise, for any gemstone. You should contact your local jeweler
to see what they can do to help you evaluate your gems.
Busyman commented:
Hi, I'd like to find out what the going international rate for
Namibian tourmalines are currently. I have a few indigos
M. Savage commented:
Can you tell me the price per carat for a
Mozambique,copper-bearing,deep purple with strong magenta flashes
tourmaline...unheated, vvs clarity please.
Rick Krementz commented:
To add some clarity to your paraiba comments: 1)
Paraíba(upper case with an accent on the "i") refers to the
state in Brazil where these tourmalines were first found.
Subsequently, many, if not most of these gems came from the
neighboring state of Rio Grande de Norte. 2) "paraiba" (lower case
without an accent) refers to the copper-containing elbaite
tourmaline, first discovered in Brazil and later found in Nigeria
and Mozambique.
Stuart commented:
Clearly the price structure for the Mozambique copper bearing
tourmaline has yet to find a leveling point. There did seem to be a
lot of it in Tucson. And prices fluctuated significantly once
dealers started seeing what the competition had on hand. In the
long term this material is poised to move up in price. But until
the market gets a sense of how much material is available, the
initial price softening that was observed during the Tucson show
will likely hold in place. My guess is the "Idar group" is sitting
on huge stockpiles. Remember, the German cutters exhibiting at the
Arizona had already acquired large quantities of rough before last
year's show. In my opinion, the colors that currently have fairly
firm prices are the purples and other "non-paraiba" colors. This
material has been priced based on demand from dealers who sought it
to heat treat to the "paraiba-like" colors. But now prices have
reached a level sufficient to protect the natural purple and
lavender colors. And as for the "paraiba like" colors, we expect
more volatility at least during the short term. Unlike Paraiba,
which started out priced at a few hundred dollars per carat (still
high for Tourmaline at the time) and moved much higher on demand,
the Mozambique material started out fairly high and clearly moved
lower at the show. Sure, it will move higher in time, but how
quickly depends on the amount of material, and the comfort level of
the trade in accepting that the material has a similar degree of
rarity to the true Paraiba material. Stuart
Stuart commented:
Our research indicates that the current price for raspberry
tourmaline is approx. $250-$300 p/c. if you can find it. The
attraction to the Raspberry material was not only the color but
also the unusually high clarity of the material compared to other
reddish tourmaline. Stuart, editor of The GemGuide
Lowell commented:
hello ,i wonder if you can help me we have the raspberry
tourmalinethat you speak of in your article. do you know of any
source we may find the value of this nitem. Thank You,Lowell Ahee
