Color Change Diaspore and Blue Apatite

The two small stones are called Diaspore. Diaspore is an extremely rare gemstone-quality form of aluminum oxide hydroxide, one of three major mineral components of bauxite, an important ore of aluminum widely used for many industrial purposes. Diaspore has perfect cleavage, which makes it extremely hard to facet and therefore there is not a huge market for it. They have been called other names, namely "Zultanite" by the mining company who owns the rights to the deposit in Turkey, which is where these two came from. The name was in honor of the 36 sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire. In 2012 the name was dropped and the gemstone was again called just Diaspore. They are color changing, with the stones showing Greener in direct light, Pinker in incandescent light and the color is more pronounced with the larger stones. And although more rare, chatoyancy happens and the stone is then called Cats Eye Diaspore. I am looking at a few of this type to add to my collection now, as well as a large VVS stone in a cushion cut. These stones here are very small, with one being .53ct and the other .51ct. They do have color change, but it is not strong due to the small size.

Now, the beautiful Blue Apatite weighs in at 1.15ct. It is a trillion cut and is faceted perfectly. The gemstone was mined from Madagascar and has a gorgeous blue color that rivals a Brazilian Paraiba Tourmaline. Apatite is not a hard stone, it is a 5 on the Mohs scale and is not a stone that jewelers sell a whole lot of because of that. I have had this stone for 9 years and I bought the Diaspore around the same time, I was thinking of having them set in a pendant together but never did it. I used to have a lot of loose semi-precious stones but I sold them to a local jeweler 7 years ago. Now I have just a few loose stones and these are some of them. I am going to get the rest of them up here on the site soon. This Apatite stone is one of my favorites, and they do come in many shades and colors. There are some that are clear like this one, but they can also be clouded like Chalcedony is. The rarest color is purple I would LOVE to have one of those and I may find one someday to buy.