Ethical and environmental friendly “mining”

Our Apatite was not mined, but surface-collected (rockhounding) in the desert foothills of the Peruvian Andes. No mining or habitat destruction occured.

Rarity

While Apatite is known to be a relatively frequent crystal accompanying Pyrite from Huanzala mine, it is very rare to find it as a cutting material in Peru. At Gemrock we posses a few kilos of such cuttable green apatite crystals that appeared as rare finds in our crystal mining project in the Andean foothills outside of Lima.

Availability

We do not sell rough Apatite. We sometimes offer Apatite Cabochons. We produce custom made jewelry with Apatite. You can obtain small editions of our Apatite jewelry.

Color

Peruvian Apatite displays shades of green.

Polishable

Peruvian Green Apatite is a very brittle material, but with care, it can be polished to glass-finish. 

Cutting Quality

Challenges:

 When apatite appears as a bigger mass the brittle and cracked state of the apatite makes it very hard to cut for an unexperienced cutter. 

Top-cutting-quality is characterized by:

• a polished backside
• a sharp unchipped edge between the backside and the bezel
• a very straight and even highly polished bezel
• a sharp unchipped edge between the bezel and the dome.
• Top-quality polish

Pricing

Adequate pricing must take into account the cost factors to obtain top-quality cabochons:

• Cuttable Apatite is very rare in Peru and nearly impossible to buy. Our apatite comes from a rare find during our crystal mining operation.
• A usual material loss of approximately 90 % of the material during the cutting and shaping process.
• The level of experience required by a cutter to produce cabochon from such a brittle material.