Russian Emerald
On the long list of emerald-producing countries, Russia is one of the more mysterious to the trade and consumers. Emerald was found in the Ural Mountains in the early nineteenth century. Malysheva was the most famous of these deposits and the world’s largest emerald producer at the start of World War I. During the Soviet era, this deposit was nationalized and mined for beryllium instead of emerald. Today, underground mining is going strong and actively producing emeralds (figure 1).
At this year’s show, the authors found two exhibitors with Russian emerald ranging in quality from commercial to fine without any treatment. Dudley Blauwet Gems offered Russian emeralds from 0.1 to about 3 ct at the AGTA show. The light to slightly dark green stones were offered as singles, pairs, and sets (see figure 2 and figure 5 in the Tucson Overview). Worth noting is that most of the Russian stones the authors saw showed bright colors and high clarity.
At the GJX show, Tsarina Jewels offered Russian emeralds of larger sizes and fine quality. This exhibitor carried stones as large as 8 ct or more (figure 3). These stones also displayed a wide range of various shades of green colors. The authors noticed that Russian emeralds are still quite rare to find on the market, while emeralds from Colombia and Zambia dominate the market.
