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Paraíba tourmaline is known for its neon color caused by trace amounts of copper and manganese.

Spinel, like garnet and diamond, is singly refractive, with the same physical properties in all crystal directions.

Innovative new treatments have also played a major role in satisfying the continued demand for ruby.

Nephrite jade is a microcrystalline material that has been treasured in China for thousands of years, used for everything from burial suits to bells, weapons, ornaments and tea sets.

Amethyst — the February birthstone — is the purple variety of quartz. The color purple has long been associated with royalty, making amethyst a desirable gem for royal crown jewels since the Middle Ages.

The most famous tectites used as gemstones are moldavites from southern Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

Iolite is a violet-to-blue gem that displays strong pleochroism, meaning it can show different colors when viewed in different directions.

Jadeite’s three most important qualities, in order of their impact on its market value, are color, transparency, and texture.

Gray spinel has taken the design world by storm due to its unconventional steely color. What might be even rarer and more interesting is star gra...

Liddicoatite — named after GIA’s former president Richard Liddicoat (he created the International Diamond Grading System™) — is a rare species of tourmaline that shows a distinctive triangular pattern, often with a three-rayed star, when its rod-shaped crystal is sliced horizontally.

All garnets have essentially the same crystal structure, but they vary in chemical composition.

Morganite — named after financier J.P. Morgan — is most often pale pink to orange-pink.