This is another fairly NEW FIND of Garnet coming from Afghanistan. We have not had an opportunity to test this, however, we believe this to be Rhodolite Garnet because of its physical appearance and color. In addition, Rhodolite Garnet is known to come from the same mining area. There is a good amount of faceting rough in this lot; however, the majority of this material is 1 gram and under and as a result most of the cut stones will be relatively small. The cleaner material in this lot tends to be small while larger pieces have clean exteriors with a cloudy core. I would say at least 40%+ of this lot is facet grade and that is a conservative estimate. Much of the material has clean areas but will cut only accent stones because inclusions concentrated in the center of the rough. I don't think you will ever see this material in the market via another source because we are the mine holders. In addition, we have priced this to sell quickly.

1. There has been a very limited amount of Garnet that has been produced in Afghanistan and it is rarely facet grade.

2. This has not yet been tested and as a result we can't certify the type of Garnet it is. We have taken a few sample stones of this material and are preparing to send them to GIA for a formal analysis in the near future.