Chrome Tourmaline
Chrome Tourmaline
Chrome is a special variety of green tourmaline that owes its vivid green hue to trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. These are the same elements that also impart to emerald and tsavorite garnet their distinctive pure green hues. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the finest chrome tourmaline tends to resemble the finer examples of emerald and tsavorite. Chrome tourmaline is actually a distinct tourmaline variety called chrome dravite, found in East Africa. Chrome tourmaline is often associated with tsavorite garnet; miners will usually concentrate their efforts on tsavorite, as it fetches higher prices.
Chrome tourmaline is a rather special member of the tourmaline group. Found only in east Africa, it is usually found mainly in small sizes. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in colorr. It displays perhaps the richest, most intense green in the gemstone world.
Between chrome tourmaline and tsavorite garnet werefound in the same locations in Tanzania, and both are colored by chromium and vanadium. Miners will usually concentrate their attention on tsavorite, since it has more of an established market and fetches higher prices. But chrome tourmaline, while more scarce, is in many ways the equal of the finest tsavorite.
Like emerald and tsavorite garnet, fine chrome tourmaline is a visually pure “forest” green with slightly yellowish to bluish secondary hues. The blue will normally show itself in incandescent light, the yellow will be more visible in daylight. The same criterion applied to tsavorite garnet and emerald is applicable to chrome tourmaline.