Paraiba Tourmaline – Origin Reports

Paraiba Tourmaline – Origin Reports

Last month I sold one of my most beautiful gemstones, a natural Paraiba Tourmaline from the original mine source of this gem, Paraiba Brazil.

The Pariba did not have a gemstone report to accompany it so I had arranged with my client to send it to one of the big laboratories in the USA for a full report including origin determination. I was extremely confident that the report would state that the gem was in fact from Brazil and not from the new source of Paraiba Tourmaline coming out of Mozambique. To my surprise, and horror, the report did in fact come back with the origin determination as Mozambique.

Of course my client was not happy. I had assured him that the gemstone was from Paraiba, I had even sourced the stone from one of my select sources who actually owns the mine in Paraiba.

After a few phone calls, the mine owner told me that the laboratory we used frequently got the origin of their Paraiba Tourmalines incorrect and stated them as Mozambique Tourmalines instead of Paraiba, Brazil. I was forced to negotiate and reassure my client that I would do everything I could to prove it was a real Paraiba Tourmaline.

The stone was returned to me and I sent it to one of my favorite laboratories, GRS in Thailand. Dr Peretti is highly respected in the industry, and his lab (Gemological Research Swiss Lab) have a huge database of sample gemstones from all over the world to compare. GRS also have a very extensive range of Paraiba Tourmalines for analysis.

When the GRS report came back, I was over the moon. The report did in fact state that the stone was from Paraiba, Brazil. I now had 2 reports from highly respected labs that contradicted each other.

In my experience, I have seen many incorrect lab reports. Black opal being stated as “Smoke treated”, Spinel stated as being a DR gemstone when it is SR, Even a stone called a natural red sapphire (This is known as a Ruby). Lab reports can be incorrect so it is always best to get a second opinion if there is something on the report that you believe to be incorrect or doesn’t make sense. Always make sure you purchase gemstones off someone you trust, someone who is qualified and someone who will guarantee their product.