Sugilite

Luck, Magic, Mystery, Rarity

The wonders of the world are spectacular - the gemstones that come from it are nothing less. This site is dedicated to the information and history of one of the more elusive gemstones: sugilite. Sugilite is a gemstone like no other that comes in vibrant pinks too deep rich purples. The information contained here is not like any archive before. We will debunk and shed light onto many aspects off the gemstone. Sugilite is little know gemstone that has been shrouded in secrecy for the purpose of financial gain for over five decades.

Sugilite is most well-known for the purple stone rich and colored coming from the deserts of South Africa. Small amounts of sugilite have been found in trace deposit to minerals in different localities around the world however the only real deposit of purple sugilite comes from the manganese fields of South Africa near Kurman and Hotazel. The history surrounding sugilite is a rabbit hole, this site hopes to open up some of those hidden crevices to the world and reveal as much information as possible. 

All the Shades of Purple

The calling card of sugilite is its world-renowned purple color. Sugilite has been a sign of royalty and a color of divinity for thousands of years. Sugilite has so many facets to it extensive history that one must take a deep breath before diving in. 

The African bust carving (to the right) is an early carving created in South Africa in the early 1980s. It was modeled from the African bush people to whom the lands near the manganese fields were home. Sugilite being such a popular item, many people have tried to replicate it in both resins (aka plastic) and by dying other materials such as soft powdery turquoise then stabilizing it with resin.

Perhaps one of the best stories is that of sugilites availability. 

Depending on who you talk to, sugilite is not available at all.

Crazy Pricing?

If You Can't Buy It Ever Again What is it Worth?

Upon scouring the earth, you’ll find some people who have small amounts of sugilite, and sometimes those amounts are just parcels of black manganese with traces of purple or pink or lavender. However, on a rare occasion you may stumble upon somebody who has the purple sugilite; the deep purple manganoan material (named for the host material was manganese) that has the highest purity of the sugilite molecular make up. The other type of sugilite, which is also more common, is the calcedony sugilite; named for its calcedony base, which will also have a significant amount of translucency and can be found in lavender, pinks and purples.

Carats? Pounds? Kilos? Grams? 

What does it weigh and what should I pay?

Sugilite has been an ethereal gemstone in the gemological community from the beginning. The first formal report performed on sugilite was done in 1987, by GIA. Due to its rarity, the pricing makes the roller coaster designers of magic mountain look feeble. Sugilite at one point was sold for $10,000 USD PER GRAM (US DOLLAR). This was when only a couple people controlled the worlds very small supply in the early 1980s. Today sugilite is near impossible to come by, and what is usually available, is heavy in dark black manganese (the host mineral) and has faint, even sometimes, nonexistent hints of purple sugilite. Sugilite is most commonly sold by the gram while in rough form. Should you stumble upon a large enough parcel, it would be weighed in kilos. Okay - so 1,000 grams to a kilo, 454 grams to a pound, and that means 2.2 pounds per kilo... still with me?? Well, let’s simplify it for a moment stick with grams and kilos it helps keep your numbers even. Be highly suspect of anyone selling in pounds and RUN if they want to sell in ounces, the reason is that they are counting on the fact that you can’t deconstruct the number and compare to everyone else who’s selling in grams. And chances are they are right, they are running pounds and ounces to play with the numbers cause don’t forget once you deconstruct the weights then you must deconstruct the money.    

There have been tables at trade shows where black manganese is labeled as sugilite. The rareness of it has been embraced by the wealth of the world. Like most VVS diamonds today, top quality sugilite is dominantly sold in Asia. Where prices range from $4 USD per gram for low grade to $2000 per carat for top manganoan gel or pink gel. These prices vary due to the amount of sugilite present and the richness of the color of the material. The rich dark purple sugilite has the highest in purity due to the high concentration. Some of the other colors albeit less pure have some desirable colors of lavender, pink, raspberry, and fuchsia. For the sake of those that are not familiar a United States penny weighs 2.5 grams and there are 5 carats in every gram. A person can expect to pay $8 -$50 per gram for rough sugilite and upwards of $2000 per carat for finished fancy sugilite set in gold and diamonds.

Haters Gonna Hate!!!!

If you don’t have it and wish you did, you may be a hater!! People have been trying to piggyback off sugilites popularity for decades. Terms like “sugilite jasper” and “crystal sugilite quartz”, “granite sugilite” “purple jade (not to be confused with real lavender jade)” are a couple of terms to sink a buyer into believing they are buying sugilite. The greater issue is that there’s so little out there to compare to that many will be scammed by the fakes and are unknowing victims. Today well over half of the sugilite sold online is fake. It is merely fake by representation as the material being sold in either made of plastic of some other type of dyeable host stone made to impersonate sugilite. 

The con... and how to spot it!!!!

How can you tell real from fake?

This is one of the hardest questions asked today. The reason it's hard to hear and even harder to answer, is that the methods being invented to fake sugilite are getting better and better. For example, a wealthy world-renowned artist was recently called out by a gemological entity for having used “cooked” stones and representing them as natural. There is some dispute between the seller of the jewelry and the party they sourced the materials from as to whether the truth was told to the jeweler. Either way, after undergoing a lab analyzation, the stones (which sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars) were found to be cooked with beryllium which enhanced the color of the stones making them less valuable.

Here's the Good News!

Sugilite cannot be enhanced by cooking, it cannot be enhanced by dying and it is impossible to alter its natural state to change its translucency or color. Many, many have tried and in their attempt to fraud the market they have gone as far as painting the outside of the rock. One instance of this was discovered while looking at a partial sugilite at the Tucson Gem Show, which was represented by an individual (who will not be named) and it was found at the parcel had been sprayed with a paint like dye that once dried on the rock it would leave a purple glare making it look like to the cursory review that it had a rich purple color as high-grade sugilite will. This discovery was made as a small amount rubbed off on the hand of a perspective buyer. This prompted the potential buyer to run to the local pharmacy and get some acetone (commonly used to remove nail polish) and wipe the stone down. The results were horrifying!!!! At the reveal of the rip off in front of them the risk of violence was too high at this moment, so the buyer just left! Rumors are a Chinese buyer did purchase this parcel and most likely ended up unhappy.

So, What Can You Do?

Here are some easy ones; as in the true story above exposure to a heavy alcohol can quickly reveal anything on the surface, while a submerging and soaking and a small amount of alcohol overnight may release any dye in the host rock and turn the alcohol lavender or purple. 

Now for clarification, if this happens you and you do have something that’s been dyed - sorry it’s not sugilite. As stated earlier, sugilite cannot be dyed. Most likely in this event you have an agate of a synthetic make up, as these are the most common. Another way to tell is the hot needle trick, and yes, it's what it sounds like. You get pliers and a needle and heat the top until it is red hot and touch the stone, if it melts at all - boom, not sugilite! If these techniques don’t work and you are highly suspect due to either the price paid for the piece of the way it looks. This can happen with glass; glass has become a more common swap for “sugilite”. The best check is a GIA test at the laboratory in Carlsbad, California. While this is an expensive option as the certification costs about $85, it's a sure thing!! The other option is to buy from a reputable source and several sources are out there that have historical stakes in the sugilite industry. They are well known for their craftsmanship and high-end designs and high-quality jewelry.