What Does An Emerald Mine Look Like

Most emeralds are highly included so their toughness resistance to breakage is classified as generally poor.

What does an emerald mine look like.

Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl be 3 al 2 sio 3 6 colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Emeralds with many flaws and cracks around the corners aren t good candidates for setting in jewelry. We found a few specimens like this where you could see small green crystals in the rock with close inspection or magnification. Check the emerald with a loupe using reflected light to check for cracks and inclusions.

This specimen is about 6 5 centimeters in height and has the blue green color and medium dark tone that is common in many emeralds mined in zambia. Beryl has a hardness of 7 5 8 on the mohs scale. Emerald crystal from the kagem emerald mine zambia on a matrix of quartz and mica schist. In the photo this looks a lot like the aventurine green quartz that you can find at the mine but the crystals and color are more like emerald.

Even if they can be set without damage they aren t likely to last long in the setting. North carolina designated the emerald as the official state precious stone in 1973. Like cut emeralds raw emeralds can be transparent or translucent a quality that is sometimes called clarity but in the gem trade is referred to as diaphaneity. Cracks look like little hairs or threads on the plane of a facet.