Paraiba Tourmaline

Aigue Marine-Diamant-Émeraude-Rubis-Saphir-Tanzanite-Grenat-Spinelle

Tourmalines are fascinating stones of great richness. More than just a stone, they actually constitute a group of minerals made up of a large number of varieties. With a hardness of 7 to 7½ on the Mohs scale, tourmalines have very complex and variable chemical compositions, and can be of any color: from blue to red, from green to yellow or even beautiful tourmaline rose...

Some stones can have multiple colors at once: Some of these multi-colored tourmalines have their own names, such as watermelon, green, and pink tourmalines. Discover our tourmalines jaunes.

Tourmalines are extracted in Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar... but the most important deposits are found in Brazil.

Thus, it was in Brazil that a very particular variety of tourmaline was discovered in 1989: Paraíba tourmaline. What distinguishes this tourmaline from others is its color, between green and blue, vibrant and luminous. The most popular shades are neon blue and pool blue. This particular color of tourmaline bleue is due to the presence of copper in the crystals. Color is the main quality criterion for Paraíba, and some stones are sometimes heated to improve their color.

The first known deposit of Paraíba tourmaline was discovered in the state of Paraíba in Brazil by a miner named Heitor Dimas Barbosa.

Convinced of the potential of the site, it took him almost a decade to get his hands on the very first Paraíba tourmalines. However, the mine was virtually exhausted within a few years, making Brazil's Paraíba tourmalines one of the rarest and most sought-after stones in the world. Other deposits have been discovered more recently in Nigeria and Mozambique. Often larger than Brazilian stones, these stones are not unanimous, with some arguing that the name "Paraíba" should be reserved for those of the state of the same name.

Choose a stone and have your created bague de fiançailles tourmaline custom made.