Little-known yellow or yellow-green gemstone, first discovered in Namibia in 1962. Also found in mountainous area of Mexico and Switzerland. The first miners to find it thought it was a type of beryl and tried to cut only the green, which would be a valuable light-colored emerald if they had been right. It's fairly soft for jewelry, though, at 5.5 on the Mohs hardness scale (beryls are much harder) and extremely rare -- it's usually snapped up by serious gem collectors rather than being made into jewelry (though discovery of bigger supplies could change that).

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.