July Birthstone - Ruby

The gemstone ruby is the red variety of the mineral Corundum , the second hardest natural mineral known to mankind. Ruby is the July birthstone, and the Capricorn Zodiac stone. Ruby has been associated with the values of love, success, integrity, passion, and promise.

All colors of corundum other than red or white are called Sapphire The red color in ruby is caused by trace amounts of the element chromium. The best shade of red for ruby is often given the name "pigeon blood red", but ruby can be any shade of red up to almost pink.



Oriented rutile crystal inclusions cause a six-rayed-star light effect (called asterism) to form the popular Star Ruby.Rubies come from all over the world but good gemstones are found at Thailand, India, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, North Carolina in the U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, 
Tanzania, Kampuchea, and perhaps most notably, Burma.

Like most gemstones from the antiquities, Ruby is one of the Biblestones. In Exodus, the Breastplate of Aaron is described as containing a "sardius", the ancient name for ruby.
Rubies have a famous place in science - the first lasers were made from artificial ruby crystals.  They still are used for this purpose although other materials offer improved efficiency.  Some natural ruby crystals show the fluorescence (actually very short term phosphorescence) that makes a laser possible.

TanzaniteOne Recovers 12,100-carat Stone

Mining company TanzaniteOne reported that it had recovered the third-largest high quality gemstone ever mined in the 10 year operating history of its tanzanite project. The 12,100 carat (2.42 kg) rough tanzanite stone was discovered recently at the company's flagship tanzanite project in the Simanjiro district of Tanzania. The exceptional stone was recovered from Main Shaft, located in the center of the company's licence at a vertical depth of just over 450m. The stone was mined from a newly intersected fold structure, with initial indications suggesting an exceptionally high potential grade and quality yield profile from the structure.

Could possibly be the third-largest gem in the world 

Initial examinations have indicated that it is the third largest tanzanite gemstone recovered by TanzaniteOne and thought to be the third largest tanzanite stone ever found worldwide. The gemstone will now undergo analysis, including colour and clarity grading. The stone is expected to contain a significant ‘A’ grade component under the tanzanite classification system. It will most likely be divided into smaller but still exceptionally sized pieces to be cut and polished at the company's own state of the art, in-house cutting facility which was commissioned in December 2010 at the TanzaniteOne mine site.


Bernard Olivier, TanzaniteOne’s chief executive, said: “This is an extremely exciting discovery for TanzaniteOne and is further evidence of the continued quality of gemstone that is to be found at depth in this unique part of Africa and indeed the world. Whilst we await the results of expert analysis on this significant discovery, we will continue to realise the potential of our mine, which produced a total of US$15.8 million in sales for 2010.”


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