afghan emerald

[Walido]

Hey

If have a contact in afghanistan who wants to sell me a rough emerald of 45ct perfect color perfect perfect clarity, could someone gives advice about the price of this rough should be to make a good buy.

thx

 

[PrecisionGem]

I think you need to find out what "perfect color" and "perfect clarity" mean. I really doubt that a 45 ct emerald has perfect clarity. Most of the emerald material I have seen from Afganistan has been small, included, and not what I would consider close to perfect color. Emerald rough can range from $.50 per ct. to $3000 per ct. or more.

 

[valeria101]

The descriptions suggests a respectable bauble and same-category cash. Does it apply?

For something like that, there should be no shortage of expertise available for a tiny penny compared to the value of the gem at stake.

Things like... how would it best be cut, what might be the expected quality of the results etc... need somewhat better insight than feasible via pictures online. If anyone volunteers an opinion, it may not be as definitive as you'd want.

My 2c



BTW. There must be a thread about Afghan emerald around here. As for myself, all I have seen from the source was might fine but small... aside some very, very fine specimens. No reason to believe that larger items of the same should not be out there. The only news about exceptionally large and valuable Afghan emeralds I know of come from local government (what's that ?!) or international organizations' complaints about smuggling - not the greatest source. According to the respective, fine goods manage to get their price regardless of law and geography.

Obviously, you have some news!

 

[Walido]

hey

I am self from afghanistan and this rough comes from friend who owns a mine in the panjshir valley, the color is best panjshir green and the clarity eye clean , it is a perfect hexagonal crystal a beauty of a rough.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 4/25/2006 2:29:59 PM
Author: Walido
hey

I am self from afghanistan and this rough comes from friend who owns a mine in the Panjshir valley, the color is best panjshir green and the clarity eye clean , it is a perfect hexagonal crystal a beauty of a rough.

I hope you understand ... a little plea for pictures

It simply sounds irresistible, what you describe! The only other such emeralds (well formed, glass-like crystals) from Afghanistan I know of are... Roman! (obviously, a pro would know better). For one like myself, it is simply an emotional encounter of the Nth degree

Would venture to guess that for most folk interested in historic jewelry would share the feeling a bit.

 

[MJO]

Date: 4/25/2006 6:27:03 AM
Author:Walido
Hey

If have a contact in afghanistan who wants to sell me a rough emerald of 45ct perfect color perfect perfect clarity, could someone gives advice about the price of this rough should be to make a good buy.

thx

If the stone is completely clean with no inclussions visible and of dark green color $3,000/ct is not unreasonable. You would have to send magnified pictures to see inside the crystal.

Regards,
Maurice

 

[Nasim Ahmad]

Dear Walido,

The size and quality you mention is wonderful, but please know that it''s far more difficult to judge the quality/price of rough than a cut stone. With a cut stone everything is in front of you. But rough is different, even a small crack or flaw in the wrong place could mean trouble. Also, please know that if the rough is one of those rare "top gem crystal" types, where the crystal surfaces are nice and clear, allowing you to see the whole interior from end to end, the buyer (who would obviously be a very knowledgable guy) won''t ask much below the wholesale price of what the stone could be cut. So you have to use utmost caution. You should, preferably, have some cutting skills/experience when examining such goods so that you know what you are getting, as well as knowing the local and international prices. I can buy rough and cut, but when it comes to emerald and ruby prefer cut. I have been trying to negotiate a 5-carat cut Panjsher piece (and several 3-carats cut pieces) for the past couple of months that are all fantastic and could take on anything from the world in their class. But the owners aren''t budging, they are tough cookies. When it comes to top quality material, you must be very careful in evaluation and examination, as well as knowing what you could do with the piece. As my mentor once taught me, how well you sell depends on how well you buy... I recently purchased a 1.07-carat Panjsher emerald just by chance. The piece is just fantastic, I believe this is about the best emerald gets anywhere in the world. But the owner gave me a very hard time, asking very high price. I had to negotiate very hard with him to get a reasonable price, and eventually won him over with one of my world-famous submarine sandwiches. It was the first time this hardcore Afghan from Panjsher had a submarine sandwich and he just loved it! (the sandwich weighed over 2 kilos, and yes, he ate the whole thing!) The sandwich was able to do what my negotiation skills couldn''t, and softened his heart for a sale very nicely!

Best regards,
Nasim

Nas-GEM

P.s. Enclosing a pic of the emerald - great piece really...

 

[Nasim Ahmad]

Em2

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Gorgeous emerald, Nasim. Reminds me of top Zambiam goods.

You wouldn''t happen to know the coloring agent for Panjsher emerald, would you? Chromium versus vanadium, and whether or not any iron influences the color?

Thanks for the photos. Killer stone.

 

[MJO]

Date: 4/27/2006 8:08:58 PM
Author: Richard Sherwood
Gorgeous emerald, Nasim. Reminds me of top Zambiam goods.

You wouldn''t happen to know the coloring agent for Panjsher emerald, would you? Chromium versus vanadium, and whether or not any iron influences the color?

Thanks for the photos. Killer stone.

Hello Richard,

I believe it''s vanadium since mine doesn''t turn red under a chelsea filter.

Maurice

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Thanks Maurice!

 

[mogok]

Hello,
To my current knowledge Panshir emeralds are very close to their Colombian or Pakistani cousins, Geologically they origin from matamorphic-metasomatic process like those from Pakistan, Colombia, Santa Therezinha (brazil), Egypt and Habachtal. In the Panshir case they formed in schist without pegmatite. They are in many cases challenging to differenciate from Colombian and Pakistani stones even for experienced gemmologists.
The color in Panshir, Colombian and Pakistani emeralds is coming from a combination of Chromium and Vanadium, iron is also present in the stone composition. Usually the Chelsea filter reaction of the Panshir emeralds should be light red to orangy red, slightly weaker than most colombian but it is not all the time the case.
In these 3 origins you can find the famous 3 phases inclusions that are seen by many gemologists as the trademark of Colombian stones.
A differentiation between the 3 can be made with the analysis of the fluids in these inclusions which present some differences. The chemical "fingerprint" which is the analysis of the chemical composition can also be helpful. Another interesting way to differentiate emerald from different sources is the use of ion mocroprobe or mass spectroscopy to analyse the "(18O/16O) isotopic card" of the stone.
As all natural emeralds contain water, FTIR spectroscopy can be useful but the most interesting way is possibly to study the oxygen isotopic composition of the water which vary from different geologic origins.
If you are interested to learn more about these I would recommend:
- The Extra Lapis in english (2002)"Emerald of the world", which is excellent.
- The publication in French from the AFG (Association Francaise de gemmologie) in 1998: "L''emeraude" which is also great with serious comparisons between emerald of all origin (natural and synthetic) inlcuding FTIR spectra,...

All the best,

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Great info Vincent.

You can add East African emerald from the Lake Manyara region of Tanzania to the list of emeralds containing three phase inclusions.

It's interesting to note though that the shape of three phase inclusions tends to differ between geographic locations, and even sometimes between mines in one geographic location. Muzo mine region versus Chivor mine region, Colombian origin versus East African and other origins, etc.

My understanding is that in general Colombian stones contain more chromium and less iron than African and Afghan stones. I'm curious about the Pakistani stones, as Nasim mentioned to me that they have high chromium content with a strong red reaction under the Chelsea filter.

Thanks for the tip on the books. I'll try and locate them.

 

[geoberyl]

Hie everybody,

Concerning afghan emerald, I suggest you to check the following publication:

"Afghan emerald face colombian cousins" chronique de la recherche miniere N 541 published in 2000, p 111 and following.
Article is written in english with a french translation. Sorry to make own marketing...
Other datas concering geologic modelling have been published through EUG XI 2001 and RST 2002 geological congresses.... Many other remain unpublished.

A brief summary of my investigtions gave several ages for afghan emerald deposit formation : (188 million years integrated 40AR/39AR age on muscovite for tawakh deposit west side (bank) of panjshir , and 28-30 40AR/39AR on biotite and muscovite from Khendj deposit, east side of panjshir). A younger metamorphic age have been found of 9 million years in the lower samples from bottom mountain deposits.

Considering geological processes, one must consider evaporite leaching process for east bank deposits
They (east bank deposits) are hosted by association of schists (source of high V content for emerald coloration) and carbonates in one hand. In this kind of deposit, completely similar to colombian deposit (geochemical d34S signatures on pyrites (mainly oxidised into an orangy powder) and albitization of rocks "kamar saphet" in dari which is a name of one mine either meaning in english white rock, black shists)
and some others (east bank, lower altitutes deposit) are hosted by metasomatised grabbroic rocks. I don''t know at the time the real impact of this 9 my age on emerald mineralisation in the orogensis but probably ( not certain) connected with non-evaporitic deposit age.

One must consider non evaporite related deposit for west bank deposit (Tawakh) such as greisen type with pegmatite extension interacting with serpentinite (Cr-V source) leading to mineralisation.

The reason of this sharp geological constrast is that the Panjshir valley is a major thrusting falt separating two distinct blocks. A noecimmerian orogenic block on west side and an alpin block on east side.

For "roughs" aspect of the question:

I had opportunity to check arround 9000 ct afghan stones coming from Panjshir.

Some stones are big (I confirm the first post presented here) and of TOP color. For evaluation of the rough, one must have a real practice of emerald cutting otherwhise it may seems really a "great bet" in a "great game" area. The only advice I may give is to consider chek the type of rough it is with or without possible rims. If rims exist then reevaluate your cut loss up to 60, 70 % even if you can do something with eliminated material of the rim. The existance of such rims is created by step growth and balancing formation condition of the deposit wich led to growth-stop / with posible dissolution of emerald and then over growth. I found with electronic microscope investigations some etched cavities within some samples along with chlorites (mica alteration minerals).

Take care of possible fractures coming during cutting. But unenhanced emerald of high quality may reach top sells level...afghan dealer know that since a long long time... may be the reason of your difficulty to bargain.

Major stones have a TOP grade have an excellent core with a less cleaner border leading to weight loss after cutting.
The emeralds being more homogeneous in clarity, are lower in color saturation, and mainly happend to be of superior shining effect after cutting.

For "gemmological aspect" of the subject, to complete Vincent presentation:

Considering origin determination, 18O can be a usefull partially "destructing" method (matter loss is far below what you can expect to have with LIBS on corundums by example so acceptable by gemstone dealers absolutly wanting the information even if such cost is somewhat prohibitiv). Let''s take an example, if you have stone from tawakh, afghanistan and a colombian stone coming from Quebrada Negra deposit in Colombia you will not be able to succeed in making distinction.

For checking emerald origin, FTIR is a really usefull tool, providing that a good database have been obtained and a good expertise knowledge have been reached. Other advanced unpublished tools and criteria exists.

But on gemmologist level, if you have a good microscope, look for FeCL2 (lawrencite) "opaque" mineral (choose a reflected light on sample with high magnification (*60 or * 80 or even more if you have). Evaporitic afghan deposit will show presence of lawrencite within three phases fluid inclusions. These afghan emerald will have, and colombian will never present. Take car some other afghan deposit have not.... tawakh as example, even if tawakh is showing three phases inclusions (... in similarity with Nigerian stones or Eidswoll Norway ones).


For those interested I can provide text of the article.
If quetions just ask.

Hope it will help.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Outstanding, geoberyl.

Nice to have you around.