Peruvian Agate Gemstone Quality Standard
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About Agate
Agate is the term used to describe the banded form of chalcedony. The term also covers translucent chalcedony varieties like moss agate, dendritic agate, and phenomenal varieties like fire agate and iris agate. Agate has long been used to carve cameos, beads, cabochons, and decorative objects. Agate’s name is derived from the site of its discovery, the river Achates (now Dirillo) in southwest Sicily.
In the Peruvian Andes, one can find several color variations in very small volumes.
Rarity
While other countries have huge reserves of Agate, in Peru Agate is very rare. It can not be mined. It has to be surface collected. The few kilos in our possession originate from historic finds and we can currently no source additional material.
Color variations
Peruvian Sunset Agate
A thick brown band, followed by 4-5 thin bands of orange shades, followed by a central transparent quartz crystal in the inner part of the drusis.
Transparent Agate
Transparent to translucent greyish agate without bands.
Green Agate
Transparent to translucent greyish agate that gets a green hue because of the green surfacelayer of the stone.
White-banded Agate
White bands of variable thickness
Red-banded Agate
Red bands of variable thickness
Impurities
None
Polishable
Polishable to glass finish
Cutting Quality
Challenges:
Requires prolonged shaping and polishing time due to its hardness and wears down the diamond tools fast.
Advantages:
Peruvian Agate does not tend to break or chip. Experienced cutters therefore can obtain very sharp unchipped edges between the backside and bezel as well as between the bezel and dome.
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
- a well-shaped dome
- Top-quality polish
Pricing
Adequate pricing must take into account the cost factors to obtain top-quality cabochons:
- Acquisition of new Agate is currently not possible. The material in our possession is historic material.
- A usual material loss of approximately 90 % of the material during the cutting and shaping process.
- The increased labor effort to cut, shape, and polish such a hard material, including increased wear down of expensive diamond tools.
Availability
Gemrock Peru possesses a few kilos of historic material for each color variation. We are not selling rough material. We are willing to cut a small number of custom cabs from these rare agates. We offer Peruvian Agate as part of our own jewelry.
Currently, we have no access to more material.
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Get in Touch
+51 994104206
gemrockinternational@gmail.com