corundum, Sri Lanka.12, gems

As known to the gemmologist and jeweller, East Africa's famous gem locality, Tanzania, is well known not only for garnets of various colour varieties, but also for corundums of many colours and hues. The occurrence of corundum in Tanzania is reported by many researchers (Zwaan, 1974; Dolenc, 1976; Amstutz & Bank, 1977; Bank, 1978). However, these reports mainly describe the common corundum varieties such as ruby and blue and yellow sapphires. Recent observations made by the author on new occurrences of sapphires from Umba Valley revealed a reddish-brown colour variety which has often been termed as 'padparadschah* in the trade. It therefore became necessary to investigate systematically the differences between the 'real' padparadschah and this new occurrence. The chemical and physical properties of the latter are given with special emphasis on the cause of colour. Further, the inclusions are reported, which may be of help in documenting the locality.