Tanzanian alexandrite

Tunduru deposit produced many world-class, strong color bluish-green to purple-red alexandite gemstones.

Locality details

Country	Tanzania
Region	Ruvuma Region
Province	Ruvuma
Locality	Tunduru
Latitude	-3.3667
Longitude	36.6833
Altitude	4117
Time zone	UTC+3

Locality maps

Map	Satellite

The Tunduru area in southern Tanzania, near the Mozambique border produced a large quantity of sapphires, spinels and chrysoberyls in 1993. All of the easily accessible areas were mined out in one year. Today, mechanized mining is still producing limited quantities of material, but work is difficult in such a remote area. The Tunduru region has produced a variety of outstanding stones including a large clean top color 40ct+ rough diamond and some stunning alexandrite and vanadium colored chrysoberyls.

See Alexandrite Tsarstone collectors guide, Tanzanian alexandrite, Tunduru, http://www.alexandrite.net/viewpage.html?id=ALXS-001-00020 (Information about Tanzanian alexandrite findings and mining in Tunduru, Tanzania.) (as of Feb. 08, 2012, 16:51 GMT).