Paraíba Tourmaline

Paraíba Tourmaline

Copper-bearing tourmaline whose electric blue-green colour is unlike that of any other gemstone.

Overview

Paraíba tourmaline is elbaite tourmaline that owes its saturated blue to green colour to copper, often with manganese. It was first found in the Brazilian state of Paraíba in the 1980s and later in Nigeria and Mozambique.

Tourmaline is a complex borosilicate with a wide range of chemical substitutions, which is why the group shows more colours than almost any other gem mineral. In copper-bearing stones, the balance of copper and manganese controls whether the colour leans blue, green or violet.

Because stones from Brazil, Nigeria and Mozambique can look alike, determining origin relies on quantitative trace-element analysis. Our research compiles chemical data from documented samples to support that separation.