LGMS News


  • Come join the Lowcountry Gem & Mineral Society (LGMS) in a dig! We are sponsoring an Official DMC Field Trip to Diamond Hill Mine in Antreville, SC. on Saturday, July 17th. You MUST be a member of a DMC gem club, such as LGMS, to attend the trip. Please go to the LGMS-DMC Field Trip page for more details and contact information. Go to the Membership page to download the Membership application, if you are not a member just yet. You can join us even as late as the morning of the trip. We love new members. Find your joy in digging!

  • Once again, two of our members were featured on Lowcountry Live! on WCIV ABC News 4 on April 26, 2010 @ 10:00 AM to discuss the upcoming Gem Show! (Video coming soon.)

  • Join our new LGMS Gem Show mailing list for the latest news and specials on next year's show!

  • Frontpage feature: LGMS Article of the Month - June

  • LGMS Article of the Month Archives.

Don't forget to come to the meetings!

They are held on the second Thursday of each month at the Ashley River Fire Department Classroom/Meeting Room, 8045 Dorchester Road, North Charleston, South Carolina 29418.  Refreshments & Fellowship beginning at 6:30PM, followed by a Business Meeting at 7:00PM. Visitors and guests are always welcome and encouraged!

For directions, please use the map below.


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LGMS Article of the Month

Birthstone of the Month

June affords you an excellent opportunity to claim three fantastic birthstones with that being pearl, moonstone, or alexandrite. We will focus on alexandrite for this month. Alexandrite (Al2BeO4) as a variety of chrysoberyl is an aluminum beryllium oxide. The most famous and highly prized variety of chrysoberyl was first discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia only as recently as 1830 on the 21st birthday of Czar Nicholas Alexander II. Natural alexandrite is a classic example
of what the gem world calls the best-known colorchange phenomenon, or "chameleon" among gems. Alexandrite can be a vivid green emerald color by daylight
when viewed in sunlight, a lovely reddish purple in nightlight, or a bright red in incandescent light. Only occasionally will it display a chatoyance effect (“cat’s eye”).
Consider how "rare and costly" the high quality natural alexandrite is and you will find it has a "professional athletes only" price range as it is now considered one of
the most valuable gemstones.

Alexandrite, often containing small, needle-like parallel inclusions, is colored by chromium occurring in combination with iron. Alexandrite is rated an 8.5 on the
Mohs Scale of Hardness and 3¾ times as heavy as water. Alexandrite grows as tabular or prismatic crystals in granite pegmatites, metamorphic gneiss, mica schists, and is also found in alluvial deposits. The largest stone ever found, 1,876 carats, came from Sri Lanka. Large alexandrite stones are found these days only in museums or exclusive private collections.

Natural alexandrite being so rare and expensive has a much less costly alternative - a synthetic gem known as corundum alexandrite. The synthetic has been scientifically developed in the laboratory to duplicate a gem that occurs naturally. Its physical and chemical properties are virtually identical to the stone it appears to be. Since its introduction in the 1970s, corundum alexandrite has now become a favorite in the market place. Stones are faceted mainly in the step, Ceylon, round, brilliant cuts, and occasionally as an oval.

Today, alexandrite is mined in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and since the end of the 1980’s especially in Minas Gerais in Brazil. Deposits are also found in Myanmar, Madagascar, and Tanzania. The future supply of alexandrite is at best uncertain. No important new sources have been found and current deposits are mostly sporadic.

… Will Postell

Sources: Gemstones of The World by Schumann; Rocks & Minerals by Jones; Gems by Dennis; Rocks & Minerals by Chesterman

Printed in June 2010 issue of Lowcountry Diggings

Lowcountry Gem and Mineral Society are proud members of:

American Federation of Mineralogical SocietiesOld rockhounds never die, they just slowly petrify.Southeast Federation Mineralogical Societies, Inc.

 

Lowcountry Gem and Mineral Society
P.O. Box 80275
Charleston, SC 29416-0275


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