Tourmalines are gems with a wide array of colors. According to Egyption legend, this is because the tourmaline, on its long journey up from the centre of the Earth, passed over a rainbow. In doing so, it assumed all the colors of the rainbow. And that is why it is still referred to as the 'gemstone of the rainbow' today.


watermelon tourmaline

Watermelon tourmaline is known for its concentric bands of color featuring a reddish, pink, purple, or magenta center surrounded by a whitish zone enclosed in a olivine green "rind" area. Watermelon tourmaline is typically found in Brazil.

pink tourmaline

A principle source of Pink Tourmaline can be found in Afghanistan or Brazil. Afghan tourmaline can be found in the Panshir Valley, north-east of the capital city of Kabul.

green tourmaline

One particularly popular variety is the green Tourmaline, known as 'verdelite' in the trade. In good qualities, these gemstones are much sought-after treasures today.

Colors, names and nicknames

In the trade, the individual color variants have their own names. For example, a tourmaline of an intense red is known as a 'rubellite', but only if it continues to display the same fine ruby red in artificial light as it did in daylight. If the color changes when the light source does, the stone is called a pink or shocking pink tourmaline.


maine tourmaline

Tourmaline was the first gemstone mined in the United States by miners other than prehistoric man or Native Americans. Tourmaline mining began at Mount Mica in Maine in 1822 and, with starts and stops, has continued to the present. In 1992, operations at Mount Mica produced both gem-quality and mineral specimen tourmaline.

Over the years, mining operations on Mount Mica produced hundreds of kilograms of tourmaline. Museums and private collections around the world contain outstanding examples of tourmaline from the deposit. The largest reported crystal from the site apparently is one that is 39.4 centimeters long, 17.8 centimeters wide, and weighs about 14.3 kilograms. Apparently, a flawless, blue-green 256-carat stone is the largest cut stone from Mount Mica.

Mount Mica may have been the first tourmaline producer in Maine, but it is by no means the largest. Newry Hill, a spur off Plumbago Mountain, or more specifically the Dunton Mine on Newry Hill, is the most prolific tourmaline producer in Maine. Since its discovery in 1898, production from the mine has exceeded thousands of kilograms of high-quality tourmaline. The mines ability to yield large quantities of quality tourmaline was clearly demonstrated by Plumbago Mining Corp. The company reported that from October 1972 until the Fall of 1974, it produced more than one metric ton of fine-quality tourmaline.

Maine tourmalines come in a wide variation of colors, deep grass green to light green to yellow-green to blue green. They are also found in all shades of red, from pink to deep red, and blue-green to light blue to deep blue, and as colorless crystals. The State's mines also produce bicolors and watermelon crystals.