This is a NEW FIND of what we believe is Iolite coming from Afghanistan. This is a very bright almost deep pastel or neon purple color. From what we are hearing there is a very limited amount of this being produced and the pieces tend to be small. This lot is great for some commercial cutting and the color is not that overly dark African or Indian color. There is a lot of fire in these stones which range in size from around .25 to 7+ carats. There are a few partial crystallizations in here but nothing really worthwhile for the specimen collector. This is severely discounted in price as we got it at a bargain. We don't see too much of this material coming in any time soon so don't let this pass you by.

1. We are still in the process of confirming the identity on this and therefore can not say with 100% certainty what this stone is.

2. This has not yet been tested and as a result we can't certify the identity of the rough. 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.