subject: Glittering Blue Tanzanite Gemstone History [print this page] The original discovery of tanzanite is somewhat of a mystery. According to the legends it was said that tanzanite was actually discovered when a light strike the surrounding the grasslands of meralani on fire. But it was suggested that in July of 1967 a local Maasai tribesman neat moun Kilimanjaro found a piece of translucent crystal. He was fascinated with its blue violet color and he also wants to share his finds to a tailor Manuel D `Souza. De Souza first decided that it was peridot, but later on further inspection he called that mineral dumortierite'a blue non gem mineral. He also showed that mineral and consulted with the geologist who is wholesalers in Nairobi with PhD. He sent the samples piece of the mineral to his father hyman Saul. Hyman Saul identified that the mineral was a new gem as a variety of mineral zoisite. Saul showed the same to Henry Platt of Tiffany Company. He appreciated the appearance of the gem and named as tanzanite.
Tanzanite came in to launch by the tiffany company and it become the world's most famous and exclusive gemstones. Tanzanite general popularity has been marketed by the tanzanite foundation as the universal birthstone or the birth stone of life. To safeguard the tanzanite cutting industry government introduced some measures banning the export of rough tanzanite over 1ct. The world wide market for rough tanzanite is calculated to be worth about US 100 million dollars per annum. It was also estimated that 80 percent of the rough tanzanite was cut and polished in India. Not it has become the world's popular colored gemstones. In South Africa it is outstanding diamonds in many places. It has become the favorite in the Australian market. It is also gaining markets in the developing markets like china and India. In the 2002 and 2005 the tanzanite price was tripled on the world market. It was also expected that the rise in demand for the stone will continue. By 2009 its price ranged between 800 dollars to 1500 dollars per carat
