Tanzanite
Overview
In 1967 a Masai tribesman stumbled upon a cluster of highly transparent, intense violet-to-blue crystals weathering out of the earth in Mererani, Arusha Region, an area of northern Tanzania. East Africa
Tanzanite is a classic, stunning and gorgeous gemstone, one of the rarest gems on the planet. In fact, it`s about a 1000 times more rare than diamonds.
Unlike other popular gemstones which were discovered hundreds of years ago, Tanzanite was discovered in 1967.
Tanzanite was discovered in the northern parts of Tanzania, in an area known as Mererani Hills, near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro and the city of Arusha.
The Discovery of Tanzanite:
There are several accounts of the discovery of tanzanite, and when, but by far the most plausible is the account of Dr John Saul, the first geologist on the scene after the discovery. Tanzanite was the most important gemstone discovery since Alexandrite was discovered in April of 1834.
MANUEL DE SOUZA
Born in Goa, Portuguese India in 1913 and moved to Tanganyika in 1933 at the age of 20, having qualified as a Master Tailor. Who travelled the world prospecting for gold and gemstones. Affectionately known as ‘Mad Manuel’, he mended clothes to pay his way across Africa, usually on foot and unarmed, seeking gold and diamonds in the remotest of places.
In 1939, in the Lupa Goldfields, western Tanganyika, de Souza began prospecting, but after World War II this became unprofitable. He moved to Dar es Salaam, on Tanzania’s eastern coast and returned to tailoring. Soon he began to feel a pull back to prospecting, but realized that he was unlikely to find anything near the coast. He soon left for the Shinyanga Diamond fields, but due to the Williamson Diamond Mines’ monopoly, he was unable to obtain a license. He moved again, this time to the area around Lake Victoria, combining tailoring and prospecting to get by.
In 1967, Manuel was living in Arusha in northern Tanzania, Around the Easter weekend, what he describes as ‘itchy feet’ drove him to hire a pickup truck and set off, However, the roads were so bad that his driver refused to continue any further than Mererani, the village of Mtakuja. With no way of transporting his gear any further, He Hired four Masai tribesmen as his porters, and he set off to explore.
At around noon on July the 7th 1967, Manuel de Souza noticed something shining from the surface of the ground, and found a transparent blue stone which he first mistook for a sapphire. After testing its hardness, he immediately knew his finding was not sapphire.
Nonetheless, de Souza took the stone back to Arusha with him where he tried to identify it by referring to a small volume on mineralogy, which was his only source of reference. The closest match he could find for his stone was olivine, and thus,
The first tanzanite claim was duly registered in his name on July 25, 1967 – as an olivine claim. (which was later amended to Zoisite on April 17th 1968). Soon after registering his first claim, Manuel returned with a small team and began a small-scale operation, taking with him noted geologist Dr John Saul.
DR JOHN SAUL
was the first geologist on the scene after the discovery, as well as being a founding member of the International Colored Gemstone Association and the owner of the famous John Saul Ruby Mine in Kenya. Much of what we now know about Tanzanite’s discovery is due to John Saul’s diligence.
At the time of the discovery, John was in Kenya, mining for Beryl. He met Manuel on a visit to Tanzania and saw samples of the astonishing blue gem, (labelled ‘Dumortierite’ at the time). John Saul quickly eliminated Dumortierite and Cordierite as possibilities, but knew he needed help identifying the new gem. So, John asked for help from his father, Hyman Saul.
HYMAN SAUL
was vice-president of luxury American store, Saks Fifth Avenue. He went to visit his son John in Nairobi toward the end of 1967 and took samples of the new discovery back with him to New York.
Arriving in New York, he took the samples across the street to the Gemological Institute of America. They discovered that the gem was not Olivine or Dumortierite but, in fact, was a variety of Zoisite which featured elements of vanadium (hence its color). At around the same time, Cornelius Hurlburt of Harvard, the British Museum, Heidelberg University and Ian McCloud, a Tanzanian government geologist, all came to the same conclusion.
Hyman had two beautiful rings made from some of these early samples and showed them to the head of the jewelry department at Saks. Unfortunately, Saks thought that bringing the gem to the public would be too much of an undertaking, so Hyman took them to his friend Walter Hoving, the president of Tiffany & Co.
Hoving and Tiffany’s chief gem buyer, Henry Platt (great-grandson of Louis Tiffany) fell in love with the new gem. Shortly after, Hyman and John Saul went to dinner with Henry Platt at one of the finest Italian steak houses in New York, and Platt told them that he was so excited by the gemstone’s appearance that he would run a huge marketing campaign for it.
However, Platt didn’t like the mineral name Zoisite as he said it sounded too close to ‘suicide’, and he felt that women would not buy it. So there, over their steaks, they collectively decided to call the gem Tanzanite.
Tiffany & Company recognized its potential as an international seller and made a deal to become its main distributor.and promoted it with a big publicity campaign in 1968. Almost overnight, tanzanite was popular with leading jewelry designers and other gem professionals, as well as with customers who had an eye for beautiful and unusual gems.
The instant popularity of this transparent blue-to-violet gem was tied to its vivid color, high clarity, and potential for large cut stones. it also became the second most popular blue gem after sapphire.
Sadly, on 1969, two years after his world-famous discovery, Manuel de Souza died at the age of 56 as a result of a car accident on the road to Dar es Salaam. Until he died, there didn’t seem to have been any confusion over the story of Tanzanite’s discovery.
Within a short time after his death, other versions of the story began to surface. Ally Juyuwatu, Habib Esmail, and Jumanne Ngoma have all been named as the supposed discoverer at one time or another.
But the publications Bunte (Jan 69), Der Spiegel, Jasmine (7/7/69), Time (24/1/69) and Life (9/5/69) attributed the discovery to Manuel de Souza.
Other dealers were also emerging with the gem under different names. Julio Tanjeloff from Argentina tried calling it Tanjeloffite and it even featured on the cover of the Mineral Digest Volume II in 1971 under this name. But with the marketing clout of Tiffany’s, the name Tanzanite was soon widely adopted.
Manuel de Souza’s journey to discover Tanzanite was a difficult one, but for a short while he bathed in the glow of this beautiful gem, finding his name had become famous across the globe. But it was the recognition he received as the gem’s discoverer from notable academics (such as Germany’s Professor Strunz and Dr Baker, as well as Dr John Saul) that meant the most to him.
Manuel may not have survived to see Tanzanite come into its own as the world-famous gem it has become, but his name lives on as the discoverer of one of the most exquisite and extraordinary gems Mother Nature has ever revealed.
Today, Tanzanite is one of the most beloved gemstones in the world, its blue and purple hues proving to be a lasting favorite.
By mid-1970, Mererani was flooded with prospectors. Some were locals, but many arrived from abroad. There was a real buzz in the air, but in 1971, the government nationalized all of the mines. For fifteen years or so, the government tried to run the mining operations, but soon things became a real mess.
In 1986, they abandoned their efforts and thousands upon thousands of artisanal miners descended on the area. Four years later, in an attempt to establish some sort of organization to the chaos that was unfolding, the government set up four different mining zones. These were simply named blocks A, B, C and D. These names are still used today.
Tanzanite was designated as a modern birthstone for the month of December in 2002