Analysis: apatite in cleavelandite or not?
By now there are a lot of stones on the market with blue spots, under a lot of different names. One name that has recently…
Category: Deeper analysis
Analysis: Nuummite
Find out all about genuine Greenland nuummite and similar rocks! Learn how to recognize real nuummite and how to distinguish lookalikes from China and…
Sphalerite or not? Part II
In my earlier article sphalerite or not? , which I told about some polished towers of “sphalerite” that I analyzed for one of my students…
Sphalerite or not? Part I
Quite some time ago I received from one of my students who also sells stones a number of polished towers of “sphalerite”. At least under…
Green ‘smithsonite’ from Indonesia appears to be garnierite (falcondoite) in quartz
Recently, ‘new’ material appeared on the market from Indonesia: green crustal deposits and crystals in fissures in yellow-brown rock. Commonly sold under the name “smithsonite,”…
Analysis: Rainbow moonstone
Genuine moonstone or white labradorite? At the bottom of the page you find a summary of the main points of this analysis. Rainbow moonstone is…