Beryl: the undiscovered wonder

Many people don’t know of beryl. Perhaps that’s because it is actually an overarching name for a selection of precious gems – among them, the classic aquamarine and emerald.

In its pure form, beryl is colourless. However, unlike other gems, the impurities found in beryl specimens add to their value. It is their structure that allows these gems to become impregnated with various foreign substances. These inclusions impart colour and brilliance and produce attractive gems for jewellery use.

Beryl has a specific name for each different colour in which it is found. Pure, colourless beryl is called goshenite.

A greenish-yellow version of beryl is called heliodor. The citrus member of the beryl family was discovered in Namibia in 1910 in a pegmatite that also produced aquamarine, which, like heliodor, is also coloured by iron.

The pink variety of beryl is known as morganite. It’s the manganese in morganite that imparts this stone’s blush shades.

Aquamarine is the ocean-blue version of beryl. Iron impurities impart the unique colour to create a precious, highly-prized gemstone.

Despite it being found in a rainbow of hues, the Ancient Greeks who named the gem must have been looking at a blue version when they christened it. The word ‘beryl’ is derived from the Greek word ‘beryllos’, signifying a “precious blue-green colour of sea water” stone.

Deep green emerald is the most valuable of all the beryl family. Emerald’s distinctive colour is owed to the presence of chromium and/or vanadium in this beryl variety.

Red and golden coloured gems are simply called red beryl and golden beryl. The former is actually the rarest form of the stone. They range from orange-red to purplish-red.

Golden beryl boasts a spectrum of yellow shades, ranging from a weak lemon yellow to a warm golden colour. Tiny traces of iron and a natural aura exuding from minerals containing uranium produce the yellow hue of golden beryl.

Just as there is a different name for each variety, so too is there a different place of origin. Morganite is sourced from San Diego in California, while Columbia is best for emeralds and heliodor can be found in Russia. Beryl is also prominent in South America, West Africa, Madagascar, the Ukraine, and parts of the US.

The only known source of gem-quality red beryl crystals which are able to be faceted are found in the Wah Wah Mountains (the Violet Claims), near Beaver, Utah.

In its earliest recorded uses, Beryl was used to help foretell the future – crystal balls were fashioned from the gem.

Today, beryl holds great appeal for jewellery lovers. With a hardness rating of 7.5 to eight on the Moh’s scale, it is considered a viable gemstone for use as personal adornments.