Hello to you all,

A Happy New Year to you all, and, may 2012 be a peaceful one with a little added prosperity??

The January list is now up, and, once again, we have some rather nice Tanzanites on offer as well as some superb larger Chrome Tourmalines which have been absent from our lists for quite a while.
A new, clear Feldspar (see below) showing subtle colors in blue, green, red etc. has just been found in Tanzania. Termed 'Spectrolite' Moonstone, a rather loose term, it is facettable and should prove to be a winner.

Also new is some very attractive "Jade" Opal from Tanzania, the material is translucent and displays a stunning green color.
This should cut some excellent cabs.
Tourmaline and Aquamarine still remain extremely scarce, and, what is available, is usually priced at exorbitant prices. OK, much of this is still due to the inexhaustible appetite by the Chinese for Tourmalines (and any good gemstone rough), the fighting in the Jos area of Nigeria, and, I suspect, due to a lack of material being found. We have purchased very little from Nigeria in recent months, preferring to buy from the Congo which appears to have opened some mines again.
Some more Sapphires have arrived as well as some larger Spinels. No Merelani Green Garnet - this stone has also been very scarce.
Some excellent parcels are on offer - please have a good look at them.
Generally, all rough is still difficult to obtain and many of the miners have stopped working due to the high costs of mining today as well as the hard, physical work which goes into it.

However, new deposits are still being uncovered. The two photos above show a new pegmatite just uncovered, with a large Aquamarine crystal exposed. I guess that crystal must be all of four foot in size. Problem is the country where the pegmatite has been found. Take a guess?? OK, it is in Somalia - no water, roads, no infrastructure at all. Travel is by camel. And the country is full of independent war lords. Want to try your luck?? No??? Well, we hope to be getting samples soon. Wish us luck.
Duties on rough gemstones - please take note that the U.S. Customs have imposed a new tariff on rough sawn or roughly ground gemstones!!! These stones are now classified under the Harmonized Number 7103.10.40 and attracts a duty of 10.5%.
But, this only seems to be the case when parcels are sent by courier - we have not had any duties imposed on parcels sent by Registered post. It is interesting to note that cut, faceted stones attract NO duty!

Has anyone looked at the"Archives" column, shown at the end of most of the lists? These are prices from our lists dating around ten years ago. It is to show you the rate gem rough has increased, or, in the case of Tanzanite, decreased in value.
Remember, prices of rough depends on the current market conditions of the day. I can guarantee you that prices will be going up very shortly, especially with the medium sized stones.

Please note - If you are viewing the website using a laptop computer, (apart from the Apple laptop), the colors portrayed are very poor. I have found this to be the norm after checking numerous lap tops. The older desktop screens still seem to give the most accurate colors, so, when ordering, please read the descriptions of the stones. It will help you somewhat with the colors.

Shipping and handling
All orders UNDER $500 will be shipped by registered airmail, insured
This is the cheapest method but takes up to 16 working days
depending where you are. You can also request your parcel to be sent by Fedex
$25.00 (minimum order) to $99.00.........$ 18.00
$100.00 to $199.00.................................$ 21.00
$200.00 to $500.00.................................$ 26.00
All orders OVER $500.00 shipped by Fedex, insured.
The safest and quickest method to send your parcel usually takes just a few days,
depending where you are and well worth the small extra cost
USA, Canada - $62.00
Europe including Britain - $67.00
Australia, New Zealand - $80.00
Japan, Thailand - $65.00
Fedex charges depend on the oil price and the Dollar and may vary slightly
The above charges relate to January 2012

This list can also be found on www.africangemstones.biz, www.africangemstones.org, www.africangemstones.info, africangemstones.us, www.africangemstones.asia

All of the plates have at least two photos and the lists are long - please be patient when downloading.

For a quick survey, click on any of the Plate Buttons above, and a brief description of what is on that particular plate will be shown.
ROUGH GEMSTONES 0N THE JANUARY LIST
Single stones available in -
Citrine - Brazilian
Rhodolite - Tanzania, Brazil, Kenya
Amethyst -Brazilian, Uruguayan,
Tourmaline - Mozambique, Congo, Nigeria, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya
Chrome Tourmaline - Tanzania
Green Garnet - Tanzania
Merelani Mint-Green Garnet - Tanzania
Malaia Garnet - Tanzania
Spessartite Garnet - Tanzania, Nigeria
Demantoid Garnet - Namibia
Yellow Grossular Garnet
Color-Change Garnet - Kenya
Fire Opal - Brazil, Tanzania
Spinel - Tanzania
Sapphire - Tanzania, Nigeria, Madagascar
Iolite - India
Aquamarine - Mozambique, Nigeria
Peridot - Pakistan, China
Ruby - Madagascar
Zircon - Tanzania, Mozambique
Tanzanite - Tanzania
Sphene - Madagascar
Scapolite - cats-eye - Tanzania

Parcels in
Citrine, Amethyst, Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Peridot, Color-Change Garnet, Demantoid, Danburite, Spinel, etc

Semi-facet/cab material in
Zambian Amethyst
Aquamarine
Red Garnet
Scapolite-cats-eye
Blue Topaz
Pink and blue Tourmaline
Heliodor
Rutilated Quartz
Black Tourmaline in Quartz
Ametrine
Sunstone
Moonstone


Happy cutting!!
Hilmar and Tamzin Bosch

A word about us.....

For many of you, this will be the first time you have dealt with a company from Africa and you will be wondering whether this has been a wise move. Africa, unfortunately, is NOT known for its efficiency nor for total honesty! However, African Gemstones LLC is a registered American company but we are now operating out of South Africa.
And, to put your minds at rest, a little history about us!
I am of Dutch nationality and have been in the gemstone field since 1961. I was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and, as a youngster, traveled extensively throughout Africa. I completed my education in Harare, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). After two years at university studying geology, I decided my future was with gemstones and left in 1963 to obtain my Fellowship Diploma in Gemmology from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. I started the Gemmology and Gemstone Cutting courses at the Harare Polytechnic and was head lecturer for a number of years, as well as operating our jewelry manufacturing and gemstone cutting factory.
During this time, our company dealt exclusively with numerous gemstone firms in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, supplying them with rough gemstone material from Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 1982, together with my wife, Karen, and daughters Morwenna and Tamzin, we emigrated to South Africa.
Since 1982, we have been selling fine rough facet-grade materials exclusively by Mail Order to all parts of the world.
Africa is still the major source of fine rough gems and new deposits are being discovered continuously. Today we obtain fine rough from countries such as Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Madagascar, Brazil, Bolivia, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Zimbabwe. Our rough is very carefully selected, much is preformed to some extent to ensure top clarity and the rough has been well selected for shape.
Please note, that for photographic purposes, some stones have a light artists varnish applied to the surface. This helps you in determining the clarity of the stone where it has not been tumbled-polished and shows the true color in the photos. It can be easily removed with any solvent.