Atlantisite - New this week

Norwegian Moonstone

Usually marketed as "Norwegian Pearl granite." In some marketplaces, the lighter variety is
called " Norwegian moonstone" and the darker variety as "Royal blue pearl granite" or "Emerald pearl ..." also spelled laurvikite. Without direct light the stone looks grey and black, just beautiful.

Larvikite is a light to dark gray coarse grained feldspar-rich grock that exhibits light blue "flashlike reflections" on some surfaces; the reflections, which come from individual anorthoclase grains that exhibit a chatoyant-like appearance, are frequently referred to as a pearl-gray iridescence, opalescence, or even
labradorescence (in allusion to the appearance of labradorite).

Larvikite has many trade names: Birds eye granite, Black moonstone, Blue Norwegianmoonstone, Blue pearl granite, Blue granite, Blue antique, Blue pearl, Bluepearl fjord, Emerald pearl, "Labradorite," Larvik granite, Marina blue star, Norwegian pearl granite, Norwegian moonstone and Royal blue pearl granite are
those I have seen. As is apparent, some of these name are unfortunate misnomers, particularly from the stand point that terms like granite are included; certainly larvikite is not a granite in the laguage of petrography
and it is hardly such in the usual sense of the word as used in the building/monument stone industry.

Neon Apatite Now Available

The Discovery of Neon Apatite

In the 1980s an important new discovery of this gem was made on the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa. This bright, well saturated electric blue to blue-green colored stone became known as neon apatite. The color is natural, and no treatments or alterations are required to achieve it. The color is close to that seen in the best Paraiba tourmaline, and is very attractive, but of course at a price which is only a tiny fraction of that of Paraiba Tourmaline. So if you are interested in that bright color, but cant afford the $20,000 per carat for Paraiba, then Neon Apatite is a reasonable and fully natural alternative. These electric colored stones have become by far the best known variety of this gem.

 The Madagascar deposits were heavily mined for a period of about 10 years and produced quite a bit of gem material. However, most of the production has now ceased and the deposit is generally considered mined out. During the time of production, prices were comparatively low. Prices for gem quality neon apatite are slowly beginning to increase because of the popularity of this gem and the lack of new supply.

See these beauties on Gallery 2 at Overstocked with Rocks

Need Stone information?

This web site will give you more information than you want. It's a really great resource covering all the details of minerals, stones etc.

 The Mindat Mineral and Gem Directory

New Gallery

Agates Only - so many beautiful agates . . . . . .

 I haven't posted all of them yet, but they are coming very soon!

Other New Stones: