Lot of Mandarin Garnet from Nigeria and/or Namibia with the most spectacular pure Orange to Reddish Orange color. These are nice chunky water worn nodules with a bright Mandarin Orange color for the most part. All of these stones have some inclusions with the bulk being slightly to heavily included though this is some of the better Mandarin we have had come by us in some time. These inclusions are typical for this Garnet species and it is extremely rare to find clean Mandarin Garnets in this size. Most finished stones will be slightly included to moderately included and should cut in the 2+ carat range if cut for yield. There are a few cleaner stones in here that will cut very slightly included or better with a little hard work; however, there will probably be above average weight loss for some of them. Overall I think the roughly 50% of this is decent for Faceting and the remainder is really medium to high grade cabbing rough; however, I have seen plenty of people facet even the cabbing grade rough though we don't recommend it. This is some great material that we are offering at a discounted price. Our price on this is better than most Nigerians and we are confident that this will make any experienced Mandarin Garnet connoisseur VERYYYYY happy.

1. Nigerian and Namibian Mandarin Garnet deposits are fast being depleted with most of the earlier larger material gone already. Initial finds were alluvial in nature and as those sources are depleted more work will be required to unearth these treasures at the primary deposits. This in the end will boil down to higher prices and sporadic production.