Gem Profile 22: Uruguay Amethyst:  
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        POLICING THE PURPLE

         Every few weeks the American Gem Trade Association’s Gemological      Testing Center in New York receives a parcel of amethyst to batch test for synthetics. Most prove 100 percent free of man-mades.

         These particular lots of amethyst are sent by U.S. dealers who are pledged to sell only natural stones and have signed contracts with their rough and cut stone vendors abroad committing themselves to do the same.  Should any of the amethysts submitted be synthetic, the contract is voided, and the overseas supplier has lost a client. With so much at stake, these lots tend to be all natural.

         Such precaution is necessary nowadays because the world is awash in lab-grown amethyst.  We know that China and Russia produced tons of synthetic amethyst over the last 20 years. Where on earth did it all go?  Try Bangkok, for starters. Dealers there have long been suspected of salting (mixing synthetics with genuine) parcels with manufactured versions of this royal-purple quartz.

         “It’s a complicated situation,” explains Brazilian rough exporter Marcello Bernardes of Manoel Bernardes, which has a New York office. “The price of amethyst is so low that most dealers can’t afford to send stones for testing. Others don’t care because they figure with amethyst of so little value there is no pressure to assure that goods are natural.

         But even with amethyst dirt-cheap, there is a very profitable motive to cheat. “Say you’re a cutter in China who contracts to produce 400,000 8x4 marquise, and say you’re 60,000 carats short, “hypothesizes Eric Braunwart of Columbia Gem House, Vancouver, Washington. “Synthetic rough costing 5 cents more a carat fills in nicely and could mean at least $1 more a carat. Not only is the synthetic much cheaper in price to buy and to process than the natural, it is much higher in yield. Do the math. That’s an extra $60,000 minimum for partially substituting man-made material that will probably never be discovered as such.”

           Confusing matters more is the fact that the synthetics can be mixed in with naturals at almost any point in the distribution chain. Once the amethyst crystals, or “vugs,” as they’re called, are mined (most of them today in Uruguay) they are sent for what is known as “cobbing.” Taken from the root word “cobbler,” cobbing means to hammer into pieces and sections suitable for cutting. From this point on, amethyst parcels are subject to salting with man-mades. Braunwart has even seen Russian synthetic crystals grown to resemble the aggregate crystals on natural roughs. “A miner wouldn’t be fooled, but someone lacking experience might be,” he says.

            So what are suppliers supposed to do if they want to assure customers that all the amethyst they are buying are natural? They have two choices.

 TAKING NO CHANCES

         Open market buyers of rough and cut amethyst have only one sure-fire way to determine the natural origin of goods: inclusions. So some American companies that wish to guarantee their amethyst as mined, not manufactured, are selling slightly included stones. Bernardes thinks that’s a good idea. “Twenty-five years ago, it was not as important as it is today that colored stones be inclusion-free,” he says. “Selling slightly included amethyst is not a bad thing, especially if it brings peace of mind about the purchase.”

         Others think that a return to laxer clarity standards for amethyst is both impossible and needless. “Why should you pay more for natural stones that are aesthetically inferior to man-made ones?” Braunwart asks. “Consumers are just not going to buy it.”

         Instead, Braunwart espouses a closed-channel, high security approach to amethyst distribution. Admittedly, it’s more painstaking and expensive but, after three years of trying it, highly feasible and very rewarding. Here’s how he’s ensuring that his amethyst is all natural.

         Braunwart starts with rough from the north of Uruguay, right near the border of Brazil. As a rule, this material is cleaner than most other available today and abundant enough to be competitively priced (although still a bit higher than very plentiful Zambian rough). The miner who supplies Braunwart has signed a contract guaranteeing that all his rough is natural. So has the owner of the factory where it is shipped for cobbing. Once a shipment of rough is ready for cutting, it is sent in a sealed container to Columbia Gem House which makes an in-house check of the material to see if it needs gemological testing. If all the rough is natural, it is forwarded to China for faceting and polishing. When returned to the home office, a random but sizable selection of goods is sent for batch-testing by AGTA’s lab. Only when, and if, all the goods in this sample pass muster is the entire shipment cleared for sale to retailers. So far, every amethyst tested has proven natural. But Braunwart is taking no chances.

         “By strictly enforced written agreement,” he says, “the factory is one which has never cut or even housed a synthetic. We’re fanatical about keeping our natural gems and synthetic stones segregated.”

         “Are you being a little too paranoid?” I ask. “Maybe so,” he answers, “but I like to think of it as positive paranoia.”

Modern Jeweler, March 2004 
By David Federman
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