gems, beryl, emerald, Ethiopia

At the 2011 Tucson gem shows, gem dealer Farooq Hashmi (Intimate Gems, Glen Cove, New York) loaned the GIA a 1.36 ct emerald reportedly sourced from near Dubuluk, a town in southern Ethiopia approximately 80 km north of the Kenyan border. Hashmi noted that the area had been producing emeralds for a few years, and during a buying trip to Ethiopia in 2011, he observed several hundred grams of rough material, including some large crystals, though gem-quality portions were typically small. Examination of the trilliant-cut emerald revealed green color with weak pleochroism (yellowish green and bluish green), refractive indices of no = 1.585 and ne = 1.578, a birefringence of 0.007, specific gravity of 2.72, and weak red fluorescence under long-wave UV. Strong absorption lines near 700 nm were visible in a desk-model spectroscope, consistent with known emerald properties. Microscopic inspection showed roiled and jagged growth structures, blocky two-phase fluid inclusions, pale brown plates, short needles, and a pale brown elongated inclusion. Electron microprobe analysis conducted at the University of New Orleans indicated 0.05 wt.% Cr₂O₃ and 0.10 wt.% FeO, with vanadium below detection limits. Polarized UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy revealed absorption features due to both Fe²⁺ and Cr³⁺, while the infrared spectrum showed bands at 2358 cm⁻¹ (linked to CO₂ in structural channels) and 2290 cm⁻¹ (of unknown origin). These findings suggest that Ethiopia may soon add emerald to its expanding portfolio of commercially significant gemstones.