Rocks & Minerals

ISSN: 0035-7529 (Print) 1940-1191 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vram20

Tanzurine, Cherry-Red and Emerald-Green Quartz

from Tanzania

John S. White & Loretta D. Dickson

To cite this article: John S. White & Loretta D. Dickson (2018) Tanzurine, Cherry-
Red and Emerald-Green Quartz from Tanzania, Rocks & Minerals, 93:3, 250-257, DOI:
10.1080/00357529.2018.1428863

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00357529.2018.1428863

Published online: 18 Apr 2018.

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 Figure 1. A large
piece of red
tanzurine showing
its characteristic
JOHN S. WHITE
deep cherry color. PO Box 332
John S. White Stewartstown, Pennsylvania 17363
photo. jwkustos1@gmail.com

LORETTA D. DICKSON
East Campus Science Center 123
Lock Haven University
301 W. Church Street
Lock Haven, Pennsylvania 17745
ldickson@lockhaven.edu

TANZURINE
Cherry-Red
and
Emerald-Green
Quartz
from
Tanzania
Prepared by William Besse.

F ollowing the 2017 Denver mineral and gem

shows, one of us (JSW) received a small package
in the mail from close friend Elaine Rohrbach. In
it were four small quartz pieces, two pink and two
green. Rohrbach had obtained them from Jonathan Bartky
of Ariel Treasures, one of the dealers at the Denver Coliseum
show. Bartky was selling these pink or red and green rocks
as tanzurine after the country of origin, Tanzania, a name
he coined and has patented. Bartky is a joint venture min-
ing partner of the consortium that is mining and marketing
tanzurine. Most mineral collectors are aware that Tanzania
in the region around the city of Arusha has, over the past
half-dozen or so years, been producing an amazing array of
different minerals in remarkable amounts and in heretofore
mostly unequalled quality in the case of many species. Much
earlier, in 1967, in the Merelani Hills near Arusha, gem-
quality blue-violet zoisite was discovered, which a little later
was given the gem name tanzanite. The locality has continued
to produce tanzanite to this day, with some of the most extra-
ordinary crystals having been mined in recent years.
Far away from Arusha but still in northern Tanzania near
its border with Kenya and in Maasai tribal land is this new
gem deposit or, technically, two new gem deposits that few
collectors are aware of. It is/they are the source/sources of
John S. White, a consulting editor of Rocks & Minerals, oper-
ates Kustos, a museum/collector consulting business. Now re-
tired, he is the former curator-in-charge of the National Min-
eral and Gem Collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
Dr. Loretta D. Dickson is an associate professor of geol-
ogy at Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania,
where she teaches crystallography, mineralogy, and optical
mineralogy.

250 ROCKS & MINERALS

 Figure 2. Jonathan Bartky, joint
venture mining partner of the
group mining the tanzurine, sitting
on an in-situ block of cherry-
colored tanzurine, northern
Tanzania.

the new gem red- and green-included

quartz, tanzurine. The red quartz
Bartky likes to refer to as cherry tan-
zurine and the other as emerald tan-
zurine, both called tanzurine despite
the stop-and-go red and green colors
and also that they are found in areas
50 miles apart. We are not sure that
calling them both tanzurine is justi-
fied because not only are they some
distance apart, but they are also very
different types of deposits, based upon

Figure 3. Small cabochon (2 cm) of light-colored tanzurine cut Figure 4. A larger cabochon (3 cm) of darker tanzurine cut
so that the narrow dimension parallel to the foliation of the normal to the c-axis so that the highly reflective lepidolite
lepidolite inclusions is seen. John S. White photo. crystal surfaces are parallel to the plane of the cabochon,
creating a sparkly effect. John S. White photo.

Figure 5. Some of the

fantastic wildlife in the
region of the deposits;
giraffes may be spotted.
Jonathan Bartky photo.

Volume 93, May/June 2018 251


Figure 6. (A) Representative shape of lepidolite and fuchsite
crystals in red and green tanzurine with crystallographic axes
indicated. (B) Block diagram illustrating perpendicular orien-
tations of prepared thin sections. Thin sections cut parallel to
the c-axis show crystals as elongated laths in parallel orienta-
tion. Thin sections cut perpendicular to the c-axis show crystals
as round to subhedral flakes. Loretta D. Dickson drawing.
their mineral components. Bartky stated that both deposits
are quite large, but the cherry-producing deposit has thus
far been mined more extensively than the emerald-colored
stone. He is not revealing the exact location of these depos-
its for fear of high-grading. The exact nature in terms of
what these deposits represent geologically is, for us, largely
a mystery. Bartky is not trained in geology, so he has been
unable to offer any insights with respect to the origins of
these highly unusual occurrences of red and green quartz
in extremely large masses—so large, in fact, that Bartky has
shipped approximately 10 tons to the United States, mostly
of the cherry variety.
Based upon SEM/EDS analyses by one of us (LDD) at
Lock Haven University, the red or cherry tanzurine contains
inclusions of pink mica that is most likely lepidolite. The
mica crystals are biaxial (-) with a 2V of approximately 45–
50 degrees and consistent with lepidolite, but we recognize
that manganese-bearing muscovite cannot be completely
ruled out; either could be responsible for giving this mate-
rial its color, which is pink in very thin sections and deep
cherry-red in thicker pieces (figs. 1 and 3). Actually, the in-
tensity of the color varies greatly, depending upon the den-
sity of lepidolite crystals in the quartz. The darker variety, as
seen in figure 4, is densely packed with lepidolite crystals,
whereas in the lighter variety (fig. 3) the crystal density is
far less. Bartky commented that the red quartz can actu-
ally merge into colorless quartz. The lepidolite crystals are
micaceous and brittle and are aligned in a preferred orien-
tation that constitutes a subtle microscopic foliation. Thin
sections cut in perpendicular orientations reveal the nature
of crystal alignment. Lepidolite crystals in thin sections cut
parallel to the c-axis of the mica appear as elongated laths
in near-perfect parallel orientation (figs. 8 and 9). Those in
thin sections cut perpendicular to the c-axis appear round
to subhedral in shape and are highly reflective, imparting
a sparkly effect to the stone (fig. 4). The lepidolite crystals
measured in one of the studied samples average 0.4 mm in
size, and individual crystals are generally not in mutual con-
tact within the quartz host. The single lepidolite crystal seen
in figure 7, across the cleavage and down the c-axis, is ap-
proximately 1 mm in its longest dimension, about as large
as any of the observed crystals. Minor amounts of reddish-
brown zircon, approximately 0.1 mm or less in size, occur as
accessory minerals in the quartz (figs. 8 and 9). The quartz
masses in which the inclusions are found are polycrystalline.
The quartz crystals in the tanzurine exhibit interfacial angles
approaching 120 degrees at triple junctions (figs. 10a, b, and
c) where three crystals join. This textural feature provides
evidence of recrystallization (Kretz 1966, p. 90) and suggests
a metamorphic origin for these deposits and further suggests
that the rock is a quartzite.
Figure 7. Looking down the c-axis of a lepidolite crystal in plane-
polarized light; field of view 1.75 mm. Loretta D. Dickson photo.

Figure 8 (Left). Thin sec-

tion in plane-polarized
light showing lepidolite
crystals in quartz. The
view is parallel to the
foliation of the crystals.
The small dark crystal is
zircon. Field of view 0.67
mm. Loretta D. Dickson
photo.
Figure 9 (Right). The same
view as in figure 8 in cross-
polarized light. Loretta D.
Dickson photo.

252   ROCKS & MINERALS

 (a) (b)

(c)

Figures 10a, b, c. Quartz crystals exhibiting

interfacial angles of approximately 120 degrees
at triple junctions suggesting a metamorphic
origin. Loretta D. Dickson photos.

A word about lepidolite: It is no longer considered a min-
eral species. Instead it is now defined as a series name, occu-
pying a position approximately near the midpoint of the tri-
lithionite-polylithionite series, two new species names that
have replaced lepidolite. Again, we can offer no information
by way of explaining the nature of this deposit, not having
had the opportunity to visit the site and study its geology.
All we have, really, is a photograph of an exposure of cherry
tanzurine in the pit (fig. 11). The mass of lepidolite-included
quartz in the photograph approximately measures an incred-
ible 15 feet high and 30 feet wide. This exposure is reported
to be about 50 feet across.
The green tanzurine is colored by inclusions of the chro-
mium variety of muscovite known as fuchsite (figs. 12 and

Figure 11. A huge

mass of cherry-
colored tanzurine
in place at the mine;
the surface in the
photograph is about
15 feet high and 30
feet across. Jonathan
Bartky photo.

Volume 93, May/June 2018   253

 Figure 14. Fuchsite crystals in quartz viewed in thin sec-
tion in plane-polarized light down the c-axis of crystals.
Figure 12. A piece of the green fuchsite-included quartz. John S. Loretta D. Dickson photo.
White photo.

Figure 15. Fuchsite crystals in thin section viewed

perpendicular to the c-axis or parallel to the foliation in
plane-polarized light. Loretta D. Dickson photo.

Figure 13. A small chip (2.5 cm) of the fuchsite quartz. The tiny
red inclusion in the lower right has not been identified. John S.
White photo.

13). This material was also analyzed at Lock Haven Univer-

sity by SEM/EDS. Two analyses showed an average chro-
mium (Cr2O3) content of 3.81 weight percent. The fuchsite
crystals included in quartz are smaller, averaging 0.2 mm
in size, and more finely disseminated. The fuchsite crystals
also exhibit parallel orientation, but the smaller crystal size
makes them far more difficult to discern with a binocular
microscope than the lepidolite crystals in the red tanzurine
(fig. 14). Fuchsite disseminated in otherwise clear quartz is
known from many occurrences, but our efforts to find de-
Figure 16. The same view as in figure 14 in cross-polar-
tails of these occurrences have not been successful. Gübelin ized light. Loretta D. Dickson photo.
and Koivula (2005, p. 162) included a photograph of fuchsite
in aventurine quartz, but the locality information is limited
to Minas Gerais, Brazil. The fuchsite in that photo is in elon- rine. Robert Cook and John Rakovan reviewed the text and made
gated crystals very tightly parallel aligned, unlike the fuch- numerous helpful suggestions for which we are very grateful.
site in the green tanzurine.
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Gübelin, E. J., and J. I. Koivula. 2005. Photoatlas of inclusions in
We thank William W. Besse for preparing the map of Tanzania. gemstones. Vol. 2. Basel, Switzerland: Opinio Publishers.
This article would not have been written had Elaine Rohrbach not Kretz, R. 1966. Interpretation of the shape of mineral grains in met-
favored one of us (JSW) with small samples of red and green tanzu- amorphic rocks. Journal of Petrology 7:68–94. ❑

254 ROCKS & MINERALS

 Dylan Stolowitz
greenmountainminerals.com

TOURMALINE W/ QUARTZ, CLEAVELANDITE, & LEPIDOLITE

Burkhard's Pocket, Pederneira Mine, São José da Safira, Minas Gerais, Brazil
37 cm

Photo by Tom Spann