Buy Umbalith

Umbalith – the gemstone from the Umba valley

The umbalite owes its name to its place of discovery, the Umba valley in Tanzania. There he was discovered in 1978 on the Umba River. The umbalith belongs to the group of Garnet stones . In trade, the term umbalith is mostly used synonymously with “Malaya Garnet”. Like 99% of all stones in this group, the umbalith is also a mixed crystal. He is a Spessartine with shares of almandine, pyrope and grossular.

In addition to the umbalith and the Spessartine, the group of garnet stones also includes the Demantoid , Tsavorite and Rhodolite as are many other stones.

Umbalith with color changes: from blue-green to purple

Some umbaliths can change their color, an effect that is also known in technical terms as shimmering. This effect is, among other things, from alexandrite known, which is why it is also called the alexandrite effect.

Traces of chromium and vanadium in umbalith can create such an effect. In natural light these umbaliths are blue-green or gray-green. They become reddish in artificial light. The colors range from dark pink to purple to purple.

The Umbalith from the Umba Valley

The umbalith comes from the Umba Valley in Tanzania. Other sites are Kenya and Madagascar.

Use: Umbalith for individual pieces of jewelry

in the Igneous gem shop you can buy high quality umbalith, which is ideal for processing into jewelry. A jeweler or goldsmith can use it to make a ring, bracelet or necklace according to your ideas. This stone is relatively unknown, which gives the individually manufactured piece of jewelry additional uniqueness.

Depending on your preference, silver, white or yellow gold can be used for the setting. You can also combine the stone with other gemstones, both small diamonds and colored gemstones are suitable for this. When choosing the color, however, you should note that the umbalith can change its color.

According to American Gem Society Garnet is the birthstone of the month of January. This also makes the umbalith recommendable for a special jewelry gift in January.

Features: hardness & inclusions

This gem has one Hardness from 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale. That makes it a comparatively hard mineral. The hardness scale was established by Carl Friedrich Mohs. He compared the hardness of different minerals and placed them on a scale from one to ten. Talc is one of the softest minerals. The diamond is considered to be the hardest known mineral, with a hardness of 10.

Umbaliths can have small inclusions.

Most common cuts: Umbalith in facet or cabochon cut

Umbalith is almost exclusively faceted. All shapes and cuts are possible, from round and oval brilliant cuts to octagonal or square step cuts. Most often, however, one finds round or oval cut umbalith.

Umbalith is rarely found cut into smooth cabochons.