Tanzanite

Clement Gillman is buried in the Moshi Cemetery as to is my Godfather Christopher Kikkidis His inscription on his tombstone is a inspiration.

TO THE MEMORY OF

Clement GILLMAN

26th NOV 1882 - 5th OCT.1946

Who lead a commonsense and therefore happy life because he stubbornly refused to be bamboozled by his female relations.

By his scientific friends and the rulers Spiritual and secular of the society into which without his consent he was born

With his permission I too would just a spirited tombstone.

PS, a few days later.

As a matter of interest the Grave, as with the rest of the grave yard, with the exception of the South African war graves is a shambles. I will admit I haven't been to Moshi for a few years now so maybe things may have changed who knows.

The grave yard has huge historical significance as the first person to identify Tanzanite as a Gemstone Manuel D Souza of Goa is also buried their.

I take off and fly along the slopes of Kilimanjaro before the clouds appear. Beneath me is the mine where all the Tanzanite comes from. If I ever find a wife, I will design her a ring with Tanzanite. I don't think there is a more beautiful stone in the world. It is sometimes referred to as a 'blue diamond' and the liquid blue stone reflects three different colors - purple, blue, and gray - as the light passes through it. It is much brighter than a sapphire, and it is only found here.

I descend low and follow the lush green forests past Kilimanjaro International Airport. This is one of the places where they could get me. I remember when the wildlife filmmaker, Alan Root, sent me to Kilimanjaro to pick up his plane some years ago. He handed me a fist-full of $100 bills and said in his normal understated way, 'Here, you may need these.' I was deposited at Kilimanjaro Airport and walked over to collect his recently repaired Cessna 180. The men in the office laughed at me. It appeared, I was about $400 short of what was owed. I spent a very long night inside of the plane being eaten by large mosquitoes. When that became too unbearable, I crawled out and lay on the tarmac beneath the plane. Then large rhinoceros shaped beetles would hit me full force in the face as they tried to fly in ground effect towards the bright lights illuminating the apron. The next morning, I was a wreck. It was time for my captors and me to make a deal. I suggested that if we reduced the number of days that the plane had been parked here on the receipt, there would be several hundred dollars left over that would not be accounted for. I think a proposal like this can raise some interest in a land where $2 a day is a good salary. I was soon on my way.

El Nino reeks havoc on the Tanzanite mines outside of Arusha, Tanzania. El Nino's heavy rains have caused the mines to flood and cave in. Over 200 people were lost in this mining disaster. Mining operations are expected to resume in the near future.

Tanzanite is one of the most beautiful and exciting gems to come out of East Africa. It is also one of the newest gem varieties known in the gem world. Tanzanite is a transparent sapphire blue to violet variety of the mineral zoisite. It was first discovered in 1967 in the Lelatema Mountains of northern Tanzania. The name: Tanzanite was suggested by Mr. Harry Platt, vice president and gem buyer for Tiffany and Company. The name gained almost immediate acceptance, and Tiffany and Company strongly promoted this gemstone. Today, Tanzanite is recognized throughout the world as one of the most fascinating and visually interesting gemstones. This gem has the unusual property of being trichroic; that is it has a different color down each of its three crystallographic axes. It is often sapphire blue when viewed from one direction, amethystine red from another, and green-yellow from the third. To make the color of the gemstone more uniform, it is normal practice to heat the stone for about two hours at 320 degrees Celsius. In this way Tanzanite turns a more pleasing blue to violet color. The heating process drives off the yellow-green color to produce a dichroic (rather than a trichoic) stone. Most people feel that the finest examples of Tanzanite exhibit an almost Kashmir sapphire blue. Others prefer the deep violet coloration. The light colored stones appear almost lavender. Tanzanites have a good luster, and relatively few inclusions. It is little wonder that Tanzanite has become so popular among collectors and lovers of beautiful and interesting gemstones. All collectors should have at least a few examples of the wonderful color range of Tanzanite.

We, at Stardancer, Ltd. are extremely fortunate in that we have direct Tanzanian connections that allow us to select the finest examples, and at the most competitive pricing. We are in constant communication with a German trained Gemologist and buyer in Arusha, Tanzania. If we, in our inventory, do not have the exact size, cut, and quality Tanzanite stone you want, it can be obtained quickly through our special Tanzanian relationship, and we know their Gemologist to be reliable and competent.

Tanzanite is such a new gemstone, that very little lore has surfaced about it. It has been related, however, that a Masai warior, upon first gazing at a large well faceted deep violet Tanzanite, stared in awe, and then said that it was as though he was was seeing Mt. Kilimanjaro through the morning haze, but that the haze was magically clear; only the color was there. He ascribed great power to that Tanzanite in that he was transported (at least mentally) to that very sacred place. It is not known, however, if he gave back the stone, but from our experience with the Masai people, we would not choose to argue the point.

Some 90 miners are feared dead in northern Tanzania after flash floods caused pits to collapse, the state-owned Sunday News reported. It said the accident happened at a mine in the town of Mbuguni, 25 miles south-east of the farming town of Arusha.

Miners were trapped as deep as 1,000ft below the surface after the collapse of 14 pits, mined for Tanzanite, a semi-precious stone unique to Tanzania.