Tourmaline

Description

The Araçuaí district in the Jequitinhonha Valley of Minas Gerais is one of the most celebrated tourmaline localities in the world. Its lithium pegmatites yield elbaite crystals in a full spectrum of colours: deep green (verdelite), vivid blue to blue-green (indicolite), raspberry to cherry red (rubellite), canary yellow (canary tourmaline), pink (pink elbaite), colourless (achroite), and multicolour combinations — watermelon (pink core, green rim), bicolour and tricolour crystals — each reflecting subtle shifts in lithium, manganese, iron and copper chemistry during crystal growth.

Tourmaline from Araçuaí forms long, vertically striated prismatic crystals with the distinctive rounded triangular cross-section of the trigonal system, often with well-developed pinacoidal or pyramidal terminations. The Jequitinhonha Valley has supplied gem and collector tourmaline to the world market for over a century and remains one of Brazil’s most important mineral regions.