This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 6 in 2019. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
The Israeli mining Company, Shefa Yamim announces the discovery of a new mineral, Carmeltazite (ZrAl2Ti4O11). Its name derives from Mt. Carmel in northern Israel where it has been found and “taz” (titanium, aluminum and zircon, the dominant metals in the mineral). It was approved along with the mineral itself by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA).
The corundum hosting the very rare Carmeltazite is indicated in the trade as Carmel Sapphire by Shefa Yamim Company. According to CEO Avi Taub, “in today’s world, where the prices of gems are determined predominantly by their rarity, the Carmel sapphire is a unique discovery”. The Carmel sapphire is extracted in the volcanic area around Qishon River, near Haifa.
The research on Carmeltazite has been conducted by a group guided by the geologist William Griffin from Macquarie University in Australia with the collaboration of academics from Italian universities: Luca Bindi (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Firenze) and Fernando Cámara (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “A. Desio”, Università degli Studi di Milano). The gem, trapped into corundum’s xenocrystals (Carmel sapphire) inside volcanic rocks of Mt. Carmel, occurs in the form of small size crystals ranging from dark brown to dark green. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and resulted to be anisotropic with absence of inner reflection, faintly pleochroic and with a calculated density of 4.122 g•cm-3.
For further informations:
https://res.mdpi.com/minerals/minerals-08-00601/article_deploy/minerals-08-00601.pdf
Gem News published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #6 – Spring 2019
