Rough Gemstones - Aquamarine

Please contact us and get prices for specific requests

Aquamarine is available in 2 major qualities, both coming from Afghanistan.
- The first one is a clear crystal aquamarine, very blue and without any greenish hue, appropriate for faceting purposes.
- The second one is a milky blue aquamarine more likely to be used to cut cabochons.

Such arrivals are not staying very long in our stock so we invite our customers to make a request so that we can check the availability. In case we are out of stock we can still make orders and sell as rough or as cut stones.

CUT STONES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST (cut to customers' specifications)
Prices are about $15/ct for milky aquamarine and around $50/ct for clean material).

Consider the size of aquamarine crystals.

Consider the clarity of aquamarine crystals.

Aquamarine rough crystals on A4 paper sheet.

Aquamarine rough crystal in transmitted light.

Consider the color of this aquamarine rough

Consider the clarity in transmitted light

Consider the size on a A4 sheet of paper.
The picture below shows more about the transparency variation from one piece to another.

This is the kind of cabochons that we can cut out of this aquamarine milky rough. Big sizes are available due to the low clarity of this material.

About Aquamarine and the Beryl family:

Aquamarine is a member of the beryl family, a group of gemstones including:

Emerald: Chromium and vanadium colored green beryl.
Heliordor: Golden beryl
Goshenite: Colorless beryl.
Morganite: Pink beryl.
Bixbite: Red beryl.
Maxixe: Blue beryl which color fade in sunlight.

Aquamarine was named by the Romans over 2000 years ago, derived from words that mean "water of the sea", which is what it reminds one of with its clear blue color.
Aquamarine is the name given to iron colored beryl which comes in colors from pale blue to rich sky blue or greenish blue. The preferred color for aquamarine today is rich sky blue. Most aquamarine occurs without any, or very few, inclusions, making it a very eye-pleasing stone.

Because of the shape of the rough that occurs as long prismatic crystals, aquamarine is most often fashioned as a step-cut emerald shape. Fine aquamarine crystals are very appreciated by mineral collectors when they occurs in fine colorful clean hexagonal columns.

Aquamarine is a "dichroic" stone which means that it shows more than one color, depending on which way you look at it. From one view it may appear a rich blue, greenish, or greenish-blue while from another angle it may appear to be nearly colorless.

Nowadays most of the aquamarine in the market owns its deep coloration from heat treatment at 400 to 450 degres of lower colored material. This coloration is stable unlike the possible coloration resulting from irradiation.

Most aquamarine mined today comes from pegmatites in Brazil, but it is also found in alluvial gravels. Fine aquamarines are also found in the Sakangyi area in the west of the Mogok stone tract in Burma (Myanmar). Other occurrences are in Australia, Russia, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, and India. Each locality produces a different color variation, sometimes making it possible to identify a stone's origin from color alone.

Aquamarine is brittle and sensitive to pressure. It is also sensitive to high temperature and may loose color if heated to high. Care must be so taken when making some aquamarine jewelry.