I cut a few of the lesser known garnets this week. This first one is a Malaya Garnet from Tanzania. Malaya garnet is often miss used to describe off color garnets typically from Nigeria. These Nigerian stones are very dark and area reddish brown color, they are also very inexpensive to buy in the rough. The true Malaya garnets from Tanzania and Kenya are a much different stone, and very attractive. This one is one of the more pink colored stones. The color on Malaya garnets does shift with the lighting going more yellowish flesh color in daylight.



This next stone is a Mali Garnet, from Mali Africa. These are seldom very large, a 1 ct stones is considered a good size. Mali Garnets have more dispersion than a diamond. The photo doesn't do this stone justice at all, in person it's very lively.

Tags: Mali Garnet, Malaya Garnet