Mystery Purple Lapidary Rough, the GIA results are in, but ...
We saw an ad for 'Rhodonite or Sugilite' lapidary rough. The photos looked like a beautiful pink Rhodonite. But when we saw the material in person, it was definitely more purple, not pink. The person offering it said it came from someone who had worked at what once was Kaiser Steel years ago (which had been located in that vicinity). That company would import Manganese from South Africa for its steel production. His guess was that this could be a low-grade Sugilite, brought over because of the Manganese.
We didn't know what it was, but it seemed like beautiful material for lapidary (cutting and polishing stones), so we bought the lot. It certainly did not look like any Rhodonite we have ever seen. And it did seem to have Manganese in it - the pieces were heavy, similar to how heavy Rhodonite rough can be, like those pieces we have from various Southern California locations.
We put pictures up through some of the Lapidary Facebook groups we belong to, and reached out to a few other sellers and knowledgeable people we know, hoping someone might recognize the material. No one could name it for sure.
We put up a listing through eBay, wondering if it could be a low-grade Sugilite, and gave the back-story as told to us. We had numerous people sending us messages with great suggestions as to the type, but none of them seemed to have quite the same qualities as this material. Purpurite seemed close, but the sheen/texture did not appear to be right. One of our customers said he took a sample to a Gemologist friend and the friend was certain it was Rhodonite, but that he thought it even had some Corundum in it.
Before the events of 2020, we decided we would send a sample to the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and have it analyzed so we would know once and for all what it was. But ... we put it on the back burner as a priority, with lots of other things captivating our attention during that year. Finally, we chose a small piece, shown in the hand in the photo, and sent it off. It was mostly purple with some of the black, plus a couple spots of blue (though we have found very little of the material has the blue).
And while I would like to say the mystery is resolved, ... the results were rather surprising to us. Per the GIA, it was identified as: "Dumortierite, Tourmaline, Rutile and possible additional minerals." We asked some questions and got an additional answer from them that indicated the black stuff in the small sample was Tourmaline and the stone is mostly fine-grained, so they couldn’t take the identification any further. We assumed the small spot of the rarely-found blue in the little piece was the Dumortierite, and we were very surprised that the black was Tourmaline - presumably Schorl (the name for a type of tourmaline that is black). In the majority of the material, there are different shades and patterns in the black, such as tiny spots or orbs of black and pink, and some of it even looks a little blackish-olive-green. The pieces are heavy, so we still think the material has quite a bit of Manganese.
Whatever this material is, it's a very cool stone for all kinds of lapidary work. But it's kind of disappointing that we don't have a complete identity of all minerals that are in it. The material is pretty unique from what we've found and it's great for some beautiful creations.
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While most of this material looks purple, there are areas that are more pink.
This piece had a darker purple in it but with olive green and black in the matrix.
We have not seen many like this, but check out the circles here with the olive green and black.
This is an example of the tiny spots that you will see in a lot of this material.
Click below if you are interested in slabs or rough of this material.
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