Awesome Pastel Bluish Green to Pastel Grassy Green Chunky Nigerian "Emerald" Crystal Faceting and/or Cabbing Rough! We recently got a nice lot of this material in from Nigeria that we have divided into 3 parcels and listed on our current E-Newsletter. The material is not the cleanest; however, we got a great price on it as it was sent to us as a sample and we are just moving it out to test the market. The material overall is very gemmy though most stones have inclusions typical of Emerald. The lot is composed almost entirely of crystals and crystal sections with many having terminated tips and excellent luster. The rough is averaging about 3.5 carats and we estimate that 60%+ is Medium to High Facet Grade. There aren't too many stones in here that will cut eye-clean; however, many stones will cut in the very slightly included to slightly included range with a little hard work. We are confident with a little hard work and planning you will take out some spectacular finished stones from this lot.

We ran this material under our Chelsea Filter and it did NOT turn Red (indicating no Chromium or VERY limited Chromium presence); however, The color banding evident on this down the C axis and the inherent inclusions in the rough clearly sets the material out as being Emerald though we don't know the coloring agent for sure. We don't anticipate getting similar material again in the near future and it is worth picking up without thinking about it! It is really difficult to find Emerald Rough over a few carats! At the price we have on this I don't think there is any way you can go wrong with it.

1. Nigeria is known to produce "Emerald" though designating the material Emerald has been hotly debated. Most of the Nigerian material tends to be a light Minty Green color and the material is commonly referred to as Chrome Beryl in the US.