When you talk about gemstones for jewellery, many people automatically assume diamonds are the most valuable and least available, which is far from the truth. Red beryl is a striking gemstone with a deep red colour and looks fantastic when set in beautiful jewellery. It is one of the rarest gems on the planet, and because of this, it is also valuable and highly sought after.
If you are considering buying some red beryl jewellery, below are some facts about this beautiful gemstone that you may want to know about and can help ensure you make an excellent purchase.
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A Very Limited Supply
There is a limited supply of red beryl stone for sale that is of a high enough quality for jewellery. Diamonds in comparison are plentiful, and for every 150,000 gem-quality diamonds found, there is one red beryl that is suitable for jewellery. Diamonds are still more valuable than red beryl if they are of high quality, with the best diamonds reaching a price of $15,000 per carat, while the red beryl prices per carat are around $10,000. However, if you are looking for something striking and different to other gemstones, it is an excellent option and can make a fine-looking engagement or wedding ring.
There Is One Place To Get Them
Although there are a couple of areas where you can find red beryl, most of the jewellery grade gemstones that are mined come from the same place. The only known place on the globe where you can get gem-quality red beryl is the Wah Wah Mountains in the state of Utah, in North America. There are other locations where this beautiful red gem has been found, including in Mexico, but the quality of the gemstones is not suitable for jewellery.
They Are A Hard Gemstone
Diamonds are among the hardest known minerals on our planet, but red beryl also scores well on the Mohs scale, scoring an impressive 7.5. It puts them at a similar hardness to other gemstones such as aquamarine, gahnite, galaxite, emerald, and sapphire, to name but a few. It means that you can wear these gemstones in your jewellery, and they will not get damaged or scratched if you drop them or place them down.
Not A Lot Of Red Beryl Is Produced In A Year
With such limited supplies of these beautiful red gemstones, and only one place where you can mine them, not much of this rare mineral makes it to market every year. There are estimates that over the last 25 years, only around 60,000 carats of red beryl have been produced, and of this number, only approximately 10% are suitable for use in jewellery.
They Are Difficult To Cut
Red beryl is also a difficult gemstone to cut, and there is often a lot of wastage when going through the lapidary process. If you take a one carat red beryl rough gemstone and cut it, the yields are often as low as between 8-15%. However, as it is so rare there are many collectors that are happy to buy red beryl in smaller quantities and uncut stones.
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