Tibet Andesine Exposed

[YourGemologist]

25 August 2009

The unpublished photographs of the Tibetan andesine!
The photographs provide the evidence of the truth.



Most of you know the story of the meeting between me, Lisa Brooks-Pike and the folks presenting themselves as the Tibetan andesine miners at the Tucson GJX show last year. This was a rather famous meeting in which the folks from Tibet gave us the specimens of rough and faceted red andesine that has been the subject of so much discussion over the past couple of years.

Over the past few months we have received numerous requests to publish our findings on the testing of this material. Of particular interest is whether we found any verifiable features that would show this material to be the same diffusion treated andesine that we have found being sold by the television shopping channels.



We did, and they are featured below in the photographic images that show the same characteristics that we found in our previous tests of known diffusion treated andesine. The images pretty well speak for themselves with the same engorged lamella including both the rough and faceted specimens, and the green center with red color rim around the outer stone as seen in the image below right.

Bottom line is that we believe this material presented as rough and faceted Tibetan andesine confirms the conclusions of Dr. George Rossman of Caltech in his presentation to The Mineralogical Society of Southern California held on Friday, March 13, 2009 and reported by this newsletter. (Dr. Rossman Speaks, ISG May 2009) Those conclusions are (1) That the color of Chinese feldspar is due to diffusion of copper, that (2) the red Chinese andesine is artificially colored, and (3) the Tibetan red andesine mine probably does not exist.

Of course, these conclusions directly refute the GIA Gems and Gemology article of Winter 2008 where Ahmadjin Abduriyim and Taisuke Kobayashi of the Gemmological Association of All Japan stated that they actually visited this mine and tested this natural Tibetan andesine. We don't know how that one is going to be resolved, but we will leave that up to Dr. Rossman, the GIA and fellow LMHC member GAAJ to decipher the contradictions.

Based on our previous research in which the ISG was the first gemological organization to recognize and identify the diffusion of red andesine, we believe that Dr. Rossman is indeed correct and the following images demonstrate the foundation of that belief. We believe these will speak for themselves so as usual we will present these with only a brief description.

Below: The rough demonstrated the same engorged lamella as we have seen in scores of other diffusion treated andesine.

Below: The same formations of lamella with distended ends filled with foriegn material that we have found in virtually all diffusion treated andesine is found in the andesine presented as being from Tibet.

The engorged lamella filled with material can be found in all of the specimens, rough and faceted, represented as being natural and from the Tibet mine.

Once again below, the reddish filled and grossly distended lamella that we have also seen in other diffusion treated andesine. The images below look very much like the original image the ISG produced that proved the presence of artificial diffusion in andesine.

After all of the images were taken, we performed the usual gemological tests used by all grass roots gemologists to see if there were any unusual features about this material. Based on the GIA G&G article of Winter, 2008 we expected to find unusual fluorescence in this material. We did, but not what the article said we would find. In fact, what we found was to lead us back to our original article about the 2008 Beijing Olympic Andesine published in 2008. It was rather astounding because what we found in this andesine provided supporting information as to the suspected origin of this diffusion treated andesine.

We will have that report on Thursday. I believe you will find it most interesting, but not surprising, just where this material may well have originated. Don’t miss the Thursday 27 August edition of this newsletter.

Robert James FGA, GG

President, International School of Gemology

Send us your thoughts, suggestions, and responses to:

Contact the ISG

©2009 International School of Gemology . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

All images are taken using the ISG Student Reference Collection of gemstones in the ISG office. We do urge and support sharing of this information in its entirety, with copyright notices intact, to others who are interested in the study of gemology. Jeweler’s Associations are welcome to distribute to your members.



</SPAN>

Visit the ISG Website

Contact the ISG

Take a 10 minute video tour of the

International School of Gemology