Jewellery brands are taking heed of a report issued by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that offers a dire warning about the future of tanzanite. According to the business school, the world’s supply of this incredibly rare gemstone could be depleted in the next 16 years.
Photo – courtesy of Stauer Jewelry ©
Tanzanite can only be found in one place on Earth: the remote Merelani Hills in Tanzania, Africa. “As a result, tanzanite is known as the ‘gemstone of a generation’ because this generation will be the last one able to buy stones from the primary market before the supply is exhausted,” Wharton wrote, adding that “the likelihood of finding tanzanite anywhere else on Earth is one in a million, making it a thousand times rarer than diamonds.”
According to legend, tanzanite was discovered when a lightning bolt struck the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and set them ablaze, revealing this beautiful violet-blue gem. When it debuted in 1967, it was a sensation; Henry Platt, president of Tiffany & Co., called it “The most important gemstone discovery in over 2,000 years.”
This remarkably rare and unique stone hasn’t only fetched higher prices at auction than rubies, emeralds and diamonds, but it’s also trichroic, meaning that three different colours are visible when the stone is viewed from different angles.
Both a birthstone for December and a gem used to celebrate 24th anniversaries, tanzanite at times has rivalled the Big Three gems (emeralds, sapphires and rubies) in popularity.
