What is the rarest garnet?
Demantoid garnet
What is a star garnet stone?
Star Garnet is a semi-precious, dark purple colored gemstone that creates a star-like pattern (called Asterism) on the surface of the gemstone under a single light source, caused by inclusions of rutile (Titanium Dioxide).
What does a raw Star Garnet look like?
Star garnet gemstones are usually opaque and deep brownish-red or reddish-black. Like all star gems, the star effect is caused by inclusions of rutile. In order to display the star effect, the rutile needles must have the correct alignment to reflect light in a pattern forming a mult-rayed star.
Where do star garnet come from?
Star Garnets are a natural stone, not synthetically produced. Star Garnet, Idaho’s state gem, comes from only two places in the world: India and Northern Idaho near St. Maries.
How do you cut a star garnet?
Use a pinpoint light source to isolate a star’s location on a slightly-polished rough piece. Cut out the desired rough piece perpendicular to the star orientation. Dop the stone for shaping!
How do you mine garnet?
Methods of mining garnet from the earth vary. Open pit mining is common for hard rock locations, as is hand mining, depending on the mine’s location. Garnet extracted from alluvial deposits is done so using backhoes and draglines.
Can you find garnets with a magnet?
Garnets are the only common transparent gemstones that show a Pick Up response to an N52 magnet. They are more magnetic than other transparent gems because they generally contain higher concentrations of paramagnetic iron (up to 35% iron oxide by wt.) and/or manganese (up to 40% manganese oxide by wt.).
Is gold found with garnets?
Some of these large crystals can be spectacular and valuable mineral specimens. Garnet’s most common and characteristic occurrence is in mica-schists, a rock very commonly associated with gold deposits. This is the source rock type for the garnets most commonly found by prospectors in their search for gold.