Good news for Paraiba lovers!

[Harriet]

Apparently, there has been a large strike of Paraiba in Nigeria. The material is said to be highly saturated, to contain both copper and possibly gold(!), and to glow. As Nigeria was contiguous with Brazil before the great continental drift, the new material could be very similar to the original one. Dare I hope that prices will come down?

 

[Linda W]

Wow Harriet, I bet it will be something to see!!!!

Does this mean you will be buying something??? Hummmmmmmm??????

Linda

 

[Harriet]

Only if I can afford it.

 

[chrono]

Hoo boy, I''m staying tuned to this one. I wonder if this will bring the pricing of the original Brazilian paraibas down.

 

[icekid]

Exciting... !! I would love to get one too. Defintely will be watching for these to start popping up.

 

[RevolutionGems]

Hello all,

I just talked to my supplier in Nigeria. Apparently this material is starting to become available. I don''t know about the color yet but he told me the rough is selling in the neighborhood of $550/gram. Expensive but, compared to true Paraiba rough it is very cheap.

I asked my supplier to send some pictures. When he does I will post them here so you can all see what this material looks like.

 

[Linda W]

THANK YOU JEFF!!!!!!!

Linda

 

[chrono]

Can''t wait to see the pics.

 

[icekid]

Date: 4/1/2008 12:25:49 PM
Author: Revolution

I asked my supplier to send some pictures. When he does I will post them here so you can all see what this material looks like.

awesome... I''ll be waiting!

thanks Jeff.

 

[Harriet]

I''m very excited!

 

[diagem]

Date: 4/1/2008 10:48:26 AM
Author:Harriet
Apparently, there has been a large strike of Paraiba in Nigeria. The material is said to be highly saturated, to contain both copper and possibly gold(!), and to glow. As Nigeria was contiguous with Brazil before the great continental drift, the new material could be very similar to the original one. Dare I hope that prices will come down?

I spoke to a Gem dealer in Africa and told me that the ministry of minerals in Nigeria are searching for potential exclusive license dealers asap...
They are shipping ''free'' samples of the material as a type of marketing strategy...

Its sounds like a new type of marketing for Gem material...

 

[colormyworld]

It is my understanding that this new "find" is coming straight out of the ground looking better than the heat treated Nigerian material. The reasoning I heard is that there are Hydrothermal vents in the area that are heating this material there fore no other treatment is nessassary. Wow I wonder if a lab will issue a report stating untreated?

 

[Harriet]

Incredible! The cutters won''t have to risk shattering during heating. If the labs certify these gems as untreated, I fear prices will be astronomical.

Speaking of hydrothermal vents, I saw some Tanzanite recently that were naturally violet as a result of ground heat.

 

[colormyworld]

I did hear one other detail about this new find. I am not comfortable disclosing this in the open forum though.

 

[simplysplendid]

Ooh... I am so excited. Would love to have one myself. Does this mean this is likely to bring down prices of the current "substitute", the mozambique?

 

[chrono]

Hot off the press:
I have been talking to my favourite sources and it appears that this new find is now even easier to mine. There is no need to go digging in caves because the high heat and pressure of the hydrothermal vents pushes the material closer to the surface where they are washed downstream. That means the rough mined will be larger and the easier mining practice will yeild better pricing. At least that''s what I''m hoping.

 

[Harriet]

Simplysplendid,
Probably, but I'd rather have one of the new ones.

Anyone else want to hazard a price forecast?

 

[simplysplendid]

Chrono/Harriet, where are the sources that you go to? If I am serious in one of these pretties, who will be a good source to go to to get one? Who is likely to have a lot of stock and hence options available or who is likely to have access to good quality stock?

 

[colormyworld]

Well what the heck. I have it on good authority that this new find will dwarf all others. As a matter of fact my source told me that these stones will become more common than one carat diamonds!!!

 

[simplysplendid]

Date: 4/1/2008 5:07:47 PM
Author: colormyworld
Well what the heck. I have it on good authority that this new find will dwarf all others. As a matter of fact my source told me that these stones will become more common than one carat diamonds!!!

Yippee! Do you think prices will be better upon the release of these stones into the market or would prices be better after the initial craze and excitement has died down?

 

[diagem]

Date: 4/1/2008 5:07:47 PM
Author: colormyworld
Well what the heck. I have it on good authority that this new find will dwarf all others. As a matter of fact my source told me that these stones will become more common than one carat diamonds!!!

Its not going to be economical to cut one carat sizes..., I understand these rocks (and I mean literally) are HUGE!! They average 20-40 carats a piece coming fresh out of the ground!!!

No need for digging what-so-ever!!!
I would suggest moving on to a different "rarer" Gemstone...

 

[icekid]

Date: 4/1/2008 5:07:47 PM
Author: colormyworld
Well what the heck. I have it on good authority that this new find will dwarf all others. As a matter of fact my source told me that these stones will become more common than one carat diamonds!!!

 

[Harriet]

Simplysplendid,
My usual dealers don''t have the rough yet. As DiaGem said, the Nigerian government is shopping around.

DiaGem,
Wow! At a conservative 40% yield, the cut stones will range from 8 - 16 cts!

 

[Linda W]

OMG, I wonder what the cost will be????

Linda

 

[diagem]

Date: 4/1/2008 5:50:07 PM
Author: Linda W
OMG, I wonder what the cost will be????

Linda

It all depends on the structure of allocations!!!

Maybe someone will try the DeBeers model and keep the world from getting saturated with this new find...

 

[Harriet]

My $0.02 is that the prices will be extremely high. There was a large strike of hot pink / red spinels in Mahenge not too long ago. It seems that increased supply would have driven prices down. However, the gem market is an anomaly because there may be long periods between strikes. Thus, dealers keep prices up because they just don't know how many years it will be till the next find.

 

[Linda W]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I hope not!!!

Linda

 

[diagem]

Date: 4/1/2008 6:02:58 PM
Author: Harriet
My $0.02 is that the prices will be extremely high. There was a large strike of hot pink / red spinels in Mahenge not too long ago. It seems that increased supply would have driven prices down. However, the gem market is an anomaly because there may be long periods between strikes. Thus, dealers keep prices up because they just don''t know how many years it will be till the next find.

The smart move by dealers in the Mahenge Spinel strike or find was when a few combined and purchased the whole lot and could price them accordingly!

Thats why I said it depends greatly on the way those Paraiba''s are going to be marketed!!! But if the government are already dividing samples of the new find to potential exclusive dealers at no cost...., humm..., I really wonder what the price could be???

 

[Pandora II]

I saw something on the net that Palagems were set to get the exclusive rights for the US.

I''ll see if I can dredge it up.

I wonder if Bill Larson was personally in on the find - although it would suprise me if he was going to let ''freebies'' out on the market...

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 4/1/2008 5:07:47 PM
Author: colormyworld
Well what the heck. I have it on good authority that this new find will dwarf all others. As a matter of fact my source told me that these stones will become more common than one carat diamonds!!!

Geez, anyone who bought any paraiba in the last few years is going to be seriously fed up.

Can''t see Joe being happy either - aren''t his mystery stones supposed to be paraibas?