I was sent an article written by Gary Kratochvil of www.JewelCutter.com. Gary has years of experience in the gemstone industry, and presents evidence that I believe seals the deal on the question of whether or not the “andesine labradorite” is artificially color enhanced. You should take a few minutes out and read this article, and then I want to show you where the wheels come off of this andesine material.  Go to the article: The Great Andesine Scam by Gary Kratochvil.  Now, here is where the wheels totally come off of this whole "andesine labradorite" train.  Virtually every seller of andesine is now admitting that the material starts out yellow. Even the pictures of the material supposedly coming out of an alluvial deposit in Mongolia is colored yellow.  But the latest version of the story (remember the first version was no treatements whatsoever) is that it starts out as yellow feldspar but turns red after nothing more than heating, due to copper.  But to better understand this claim I have to refer to Dr. Rossman of CalTech on his website explaining the source of color for yellow and red feldspar:  

“Pale yellow color in feldspar is due to Fe3+ in the tetrahderal Si/Al site." “There are also rare varieties of plagioclase feldspar colored green and red from copper ions and colloidal copper.” http://minerals.caltech.edu/files/Visible/feldspar/index.htm (links on yellow and red by Dr. Rossman) 

So the coloring element in yellow feldspar is iron.  And the coloring element in red feldspar is copper.  But if you simply heat the iron based yellow feldspar….it turns into copper based red feldspar? You can turn iron into copper just by heating it! Does anyone see the problem here? This is what we are now being told by the sellers is really happening, having changed their original story.

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The obvious problem is: Where did the copper come from if it was not artificially induced into the yellow stone during the heating? I think Gary's excellent article answered that for us. The only way to get copper into the yellow feldspar is to artificially diffuse it into the stone.

 

What is sad about this is that it took 6 years, and a huge helping of consumer outrage to finally get some attention on this issue. Consumers can thank Lisa Brooks-Pike, RGA, of GemnI Gems for finally getting my attention. She was relentless. And it took us here at the ISG all of about 15 minutes to see what was going on, and then weeks and weeks of our time, and literally thousands of dollars in our money to try to get anyone else to listen. So I can understand the consumer outrage based on the many, many emails I have received from them.

 

But the saddest part is how much consumer confidence has been lost that will take years to win back.

 

It could have all been avoided if someone would have just done a bit of gemology before offering this material for sale.

 

Or if someone would have asked Ms. Li why her photo of the andesine mine at 19,000 feet showed trees in the background? That might have been a good place to start with the questions several years ago.

 

And just where is the Jewelers Vigilance Committee in all of this, anyway?

 

The ISG just purchased three 5.00+ carat red andesines from Thai dealers (at about $40.00 per stone) that are claimed to be from the Congo and totally natural with no treatments.

 

How come these andesines that were supposedly so rare and valuable, have suddenly become so plentiful and cheap?  Maybe someone has found a way to take cheap yellow feldspar and artificially diffuse copper into it, to turn it red so they can produce a boat load of the material to sell to unsuspecting US consumers! 

 

Come to think of it, that is exactly what we said in our first report 6 weeks ago!

 

 Robert James FGA, GG

President, International School of Gemology