Tsilaisite (sill-Eye-site) is a very rare form of Tourmaline only found in a few places around the world.  It has an intense "neon" yellow color and contains a high content of Mn up to 9.2%.  One notable find of gemmy facet grade material was in Zambia in the late 1970's, but  since that time very little of the material has been available.

Recently a new find was discovered in Zambia and a small amount of gemmy rough became available.  If you like collecting and cutting Tourmaline this is a chance to get one of the rarest types!

A few notes on the material below:

Tsilaisite is often included with fine bubbles and light veils.  The pieces below range from lightly included (mostly Eye-Clean) to quite clean (at 10X) for this material.  Given the rareity and vivid color, the light inclusions are not a big issue.  We suggest that these stones should be faceted  - however - if you do decide to cut cabochon on some of the larger pieces, you will certainly have one of the rarest around !  Color is a vivid yellow - greenish yellow changing slightly in different lighting.

Please see the description of each stone below.

We will be freshening up this page of rare material with some new additions. Hope to have the new list up sometime in March.