Title:
Tanzanite price on world market triples in three years.
Date:
3/24/2005; Publication: Xinhua News Agency;
DAR ES SALAAM, Mar 24, 2005 (Xinhua
via COMTEX)
The global market price of
tanzanite, a gemstone produced only in Tanzania, has surged by more than
three times in the past three years.
According to sale indexes
available here on Thursday, the price of top quality or the triple-A grade
tanzanite, has currently jumped to around 600 US dollars per gram from about
180 dollars per gram three years ago.
The deep blue gemstone, which
was introduced to the world in 1960s and had been once confused with blue
sapphire, is now one of the most sought after precious stones to be sold in
Tanzania where in responding to the hike of global prices, most of its local
retail dealers increase their spot prices by almost 25 percent every half a
year.
Discovered at the foot of Mount
Kilimanjaro by a Masai tribe man by accident in the year 1964, tanzanite has
become popular since later last century after some world-class jewelers
promoted it on the world market.
The gemstone, which is only
found within an area of no more than 10 sq. km in northern Tanzania and is
predicted to be exhausted by the year 2020, fetched some 100 million US
dollars on the world market each year.
A tanzanite of good quality
after cutting shows mixed hue of deep blue and purple. The color is at its
best when a stone is at least four carats in size.
Copyright 2005 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
