Zeolites in rings

In gemological practice, stones are often found that are often not associated with precious or jewelry at all. Despite this, they have all the necessary properties to be cut. Most often, these stones include colorless or pale-colored minerals with a hardness of about 5 - 5.5 on the Mohs scale. Such "unlucky" minerals can be safely attributed to zeolites of the mineral series scolecite-natrolite, natrolite itself and scolecite, as well as an intermediate in composition mesolite mineral. Although the cuts of these stones are quite common on mineralogical trading platforms, and natrolite is the most common among the minerals of this series, finding a visually clear cut natrolite over 5 carats in size is not an easy task, and one can only dream of a 10 carat stone. Large crystals of gem-quality natrolite can be found in the central zones of alkaline pegmatites. In hydrothermal veins, jewelry crystals of both natrolite and scolecite grow, sometimes crystals of a transitional composition are found, as well as having a scolecite composition in one part of the crystal, and natrolite in the other. The trouble is that these stones, as a rule, do not correspond to the cutting quality. One and the most important disadvantage of zeolites is that these minerals do not form placers due to their susceptibility to the influence of not only physical factors of weathering, but also to the effects of natural chemical agents - they crack and become cloudy.