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What do you know about apatite?
Apatite is widely known as a chemical and agrochemical raw material and is much less common in the jewelry industry. It is an inexpensive but beautiful material for making spectacular jewelry inserts. The only drawback of apatite is its low hardness. But it is offset by the low cost of the mineral. Apatite used for making jewelry inserts is characterized by a wide range of colors - from colorless, red and yellow to green, blue and violet. Also known are apatites with alexandrite effect (the effect of color change under different types of lighting). The largest amount of gem apatite comes from deposits in Brazil, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Burma, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the USA. In Russia, the source of jewelry apatite is the deposits of the Khibiny tundra in the Murmansk region and the area of the city of Slyudyanka in the southern Baikal region. At present, due to the complexity of cutting, apatite is not widely used in the jewelry market. Most often, it is found in the form of small faceted beads in a string of beads. However, at exhibitions and sales of gemstones, one can find beautiful samples of apatite cut, as well as jewelry decorated with inserts obtained from apatite.
В геммологической практике бывают весьма увлекательные случаи с диагностикой ювелирных вставок
Но помимо редкости цвета и высокой стоимости таких камней, многие розовые камни выделяются одной замечательной особенностью – они проявляют плеохроизм, то есть в зависимости от положения осмотра камня он может иметь дополнительные оттенки – оранжевый или пурпурный.
Currently, gemstones are produced by two fundamentally different technological methods - the High Pressure - High Temperature method (“HPHT”, High-pressure & High-temperature) and the Chemical Vapor Deposition (“CVD”, Chemical vapor deposition) method. The "HPHT" method is the most tested classical synthesis method, which can be used both carbon deposition on diamond from flux melts and catalytic reactions. In "CVD" synthesis, diamond growth occurs on a seed during carbon deposition mainly from a gaseous medium at relatively low temperatures and pressures.
Jewelry and precious stones are just such a category of goods, when buying which you need to pay attention to many criteria.
Sogdianite is a rather rare mineral and more often it can be found as a collection material (moreover, in systematic collections), and it is extremely rare in jewelry.