Mandarin Orange to Tangerine Spessartite Garnet Faceting & Cabbing Rough from a fairly new discovery in Kunar, Afghanistan. You can read our write-up for this material in the Fall 2004 issue of GIA's Gems & Gemology. This material closely resembles the Namibian and better quality Nigerian Mandarin Spessartite Garnet seldom available in the market; however, many of the stones have a VERY subtle Peach overtone like we have not seen before. Since all Afghan finds are from Primary Deposits almost all of these stones show Crystal faces or natural etching with many showing high external luster. Many of these are nice chunky Crystal Sections with a bright Mandarin Orange color for the most part.

Most of these stones have some inclusions with the bulk being very slightly to moderately included with most smaller stones being EXTREMELY clean. These inclusions are typical for this Garnet species and it is extremely rare to find clean Mandarin Garnets in any size. This material is better than your typical Nigerian Mandarin for clarity and we are confident it will produce some rare spectacular finished gemstones. Overall I think roughly 40% of this material is good to high facet grade but we have seen far lower quality faceted selling for top dollar once cut! Our price on this is better than most Nigerian and Namibian dealers for like quality material and we are confident that this will make any experienced Mandarin Garnet connoisseur VERYYYYY happy.

1. Afghanistan & Pakistan are said to house most of the next centuries new finds of stones and we are constantly seeing new stones being discovered. We are trying our best to stay at the forefront of the New Finds but it is becoming extremely difficult with the locals catching on quick. This material floored us the first time we saw it and we are confident it will do the same for you. The color on some of the Mandarin Garnet coming from Afghanistan is just mind blowing and reminiscent of the old Namibian finds! Please note that this is NOT a large find and since this material is coming from a primary deposit at extremely high altitude there is considerably higher expenditures involved in unearthing this material! Don't miss your opportunity to procure some of this material before the mine turns to the same as the Namibian....dry!