Tanzanite Diamond

18K white gold ring set with a stunning 2.78 carat tanzanite in a crown of 18 diamonds.
 
GIA CERTIFIED
 
The Merelani Mining area beneath Mount Kilimanjaro is the only known source of Tanzanite in the world. This makes the stone considerably rarer than Diamonds and one with a finite resource.
 
This gorgeous Tanzanite is one of a very few produced in a very small window of the earth's history. It was formed 500 million years ago. The host rock it formed in are late Proterozoic metasediments that were originally a series of sands and clays rich in organic matter with elevated levels of uranium, vanadium and aluminium rich minerals. These sediments were highly weathered and deposited in a lake. During and after the Pan-African tectono-thermal (mountain building) metamorphism a release and migration of hydrothermal fluids took place. The result was the deposition from these fluids of calcium, magnesium, vanadium, uranium, strontium and Zinc as well as heavy rare earth elements Co2 and SO3 along the Lelatema fault zone into chocolate tablet shaped boudin structures.
 
This rare Tanzanite was amongst a number of crystals that formed in this structure as a result of the enormous geological events that formed the mighty Mount Kilimanjaro. It lay there for hundreds of millions of years until it was discovered by independent Tanzanite miners as they explored deep into the earth's surface. Five hundred million years after its conception this lovely, rare crystal finds itself in human hands.
 
Cut by master cutters in our Tanzanian based lapidary on Goloindoi road in Arush, Tanzania and then brought to our main offices for photography and laser inscription. A journey of 550 million years has paused here.