What is Genuine Tanzanite?
Tanzanite is Zoisite, a very unusual and extremely rare mineral (in its natural state reddish brown) that after being heated (to 500-600 °C) is a dazzling sapphire-violet/ periwinkle blue-purple/plum-violet color gemstone. A true tanzanite stone is said to be rarer, and more valuable, than a diamond. This is because there is only one area on earth where it is known to exist – near the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, Northern Tanzania, Africa. It is a relatively new gemstone discovery. The first tanzanite was noticed (it is claimed to have been after a grassfire) in 1967 by Maasai tribesmen and then by Portuguese Manuel D’Souza (who at the time searched for sapphire) who consulted his find with a geologist named John Saul in Nairobi (who also discovered ruby deposits in Kenya), and sent the tanzanite to his father Hyman Saul who at that time was vice president at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York. How convenient was that? Nevertheless, it appears to have been Mr. Henry Platt of Tiffany & Comp
