Tanzanite is often referred to as the “stone of the 20th century” among gemologists. The colored gemstone was only discovered in 1967, and at the time it was a revolutionary natural replacement for the classic blue sapphire. According to the Swiss Gübelin and Erni (1999), tanzanite is the “blue patrician from Africa” and in some aspects overshadowed many other gemstones in the second half of the 20th century.
The discovery of tanzanite is an exciting story: Manuel de Souza, an Indian tailor from Arusha, had dreamed since childhood of one day finding a unique gemstone. This would bring him wealth and security and put an end to his life as a tailor. In July 1967, he was wandering through the bush between Arusha and Moshi in northern Tanzania. When he got lost, he fatefully met some Maasai shepherds and sat down with them at the campfire. One of the shepherds curiously asked him what he was looking for. Manuel told him about his dream, and the shepherd showed him a small, deep blue stone. Manuel immediately thought of a sapphire. When he asked the shepherd where the stone came from, he received the answer that the stone had been found in a place that the Maasai consider sacred.
The path to worldwide recognition
The Maasai led Manuel through a difficult path full of fallen trees, thorns and mosquitoes until the next morning they reached a depression where many blue stones sparkled on the surface. Manuel, scratching the stones with his knife (to check what he was looking at), found that they were not sapphires or glass, but some other type of stone. With the Maasai gone, Manuel knew that he would have to rely on the law for everything else and reported his find to the district capital Moshi in order to possibly secure a claim.
Initially, experts suspected that it could be cordierite or dumortierite. But later scientific research at the University of Heidelberg in Germany identified the material as zoisite – a collector’s stone that had previously received little attention. The famous and traditional New York company Tiffany acquired the first examples of the new gemstone and the then Vice President H. Platt suggested calling the stone “tanzanite” to honor the only country in the world that supplies significant quantities. Within a short time, tanzanite became very popular worldwide.
Unfortunately, Manuel de Souza, partly naive and partly too trusting, told too much about his discovery to other people, which quickly attracted many other gemstone hunters and traders. They profited from the new stone. Despite his wealth of discoveries, Manuel himself unfortunately did not end up being as rich as he had hoped. He was convinced that his success had been taken away from him by his sometimes tough competitors and returned to his sewing machine disappointed, wondering whether the “earth spirits” for whom he had not shown enough respect were perhaps punishing him for his discovery.
Properties and Value of Tanzanite
The gemstone tanzanite is commonly known for its impressive, deep blue color, which ranges from ultramarine blue to sapphire blue and violet blue. The colored gemstone owes this variety of colors to the chemical element vanadium. Another typical feature of tanzanite is its strong pleochroism: depending on the viewing angle, it shows blue, reddish-violet and yellowish-brown.
Tanzanite is only found in the Merelani Hills in northern Tanzania, near Kilimanjaro. The mining area extends over about 7 x 1.2 kilometers and is currently operated to a depth of over 1,200 meters. In 2002, an impressive crystal weighing 3.37 kilograms was discovered, which was called “Maenzi Tanzanite”. Even more spectacular was the discovery by Saniniu Laizer and his team in 2020: two giant crystals weighing 9.4 and 5.8 kilograms, which he sold to the Tanzanian government for 3.4 million US dollars. One of the largest cut specimens is the so-called Namunyak Tanzanite with 423.56 carats.
An impressive example of the craftsmanship of this gemstone is the sculpture “L’Heure Bleu” created by New York artist Naomi Sarna. This hand-carved sculpture, resting on a silver base, even won the Guinness World Record for the largest cut tanzanite. The sculpture was officially weighed and recognized at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals in Oregon.
The artist Sarna, who visited the tanzanite mines in Tanzania, learned crafts from the Maasai women and in return taught them how to make jewelry out of tanzanite. She learned about the trachoma disease that affects many Maasai and then pledged to donate the proceeds from the sale of her sculpture to the Casey Eye Institute to provide eye care for the Maasai.
This Guinness World Record sculpture has not only brought further international recognition to gemstones, but also strengthened the promise that the long-term gemstone trade has a positive impact. Dr. Andreas K. Lauer of the Casey Eye Institute emphasized the importance of Sarna’s contribution and the positive impact on the community.
Sought after for beauty and returns
The following figures show quite clearly that tanzanite is a very rare colored gemstone, which, in addition to its beauty and aesthetics, also functions as a so-called eternal store of wealth for the buyer:
Industry insiders believe that only around 200 kg of raw tanzanite is mined each year, of which only around 2 kg is top quality, i.e. investment quality. For this and many other reasons, tanzanite is already a particularly popular investment gemstone, which many customers of the German Gemstone House add to their own portfolios as an investment for long-term asset protection.
Tanzanite remains a symbol of the fascinating beauty and history of one of the most remarkable gemstones of the 20th century. It also has the potential to increase in value even further in the future, should the few remaining quantities of Tanzanian gold be completely exhausted, as this stone cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
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