| Letters | July 2012
www.BrianNorton.com
Quality rough gems from Africa
P.O.Box 128 Hilton 3245 Kwa Zulu Natal South Africa
Tel/Fax +27(33) 3303428 Email: brian.norton@pixie.co.za
Sandy Hatchwell 7823 Rampart Way, Littleton, CO, 80125 Email: hatchwell@yahoo.com
July 2012
Hello Everyone,
I hope you are all well – but cold for some and warm for others! I know which I would rather be although our winter has been particularly mild to date but think the mountain snow and cold winds are imminent.
Good rough from Africa continues to be very scarce and prices are rising all the time I sound like a stuck record. Lack of mining is obviously one of the biggest factors as a lot of miners turn to subsistence farming. The other is conflict and religious wars in certain areas like Nigeria and the Congo. Mozambique I believe was very negatively influenced by the Paraiba find which created extreme pricing for all types of gems and this is taking ages to resume to normal. Namibian Tourmaline is still very highly sought after but has a defined market at extremely high prices. To top it all Chinese buyers are spread throughout Africa and looking to buy up as many natural resources as possible.
The list is once again full of exciting material – I fortunate to get some really nice Mozambique Tourmaline – this type of material is rising in price all the time. There are a multitude of colors and sizes and the small Namibian material will cut really nicely. There are some beautifully colored chunks of Aqua 1 and 49 together with some other very vibrant material. The Garnets are superb – a real collectors Malaia # 7, together with some hot Tanga, vivid Spessartite and the increasingly popular Demantoid Garnet which cuts brilliantly. The Tanzanite is awesome and nicely priced. Rounding off with some Sapphire, Spinel, Heliodor and Zircon this is a nice list.
The parcels are all very nice material with good recovery and a worthwhile purchase.
Hope you enjoy and please let me know if I can be of any help.
Kind regards
Brian
Please remember our gradings as follows: AAA 95% clean and above, AA 85% clean and above, A 75% clean and above
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