Rare Tiffany Stone Pendant

There are chains available as a separate listing in my store, click on link below.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4442945840/chains

This high quality Tiffany stone pendant has been embellished with graduated cut citriine and lab created amethyst to bring out the colors of the beautiful stone. The bail is hidden on the backplate to give it the look of a free floating pendant. Due to the nature of this particular mineral there are several small pits on the surface of the stone. This does not detract in any way from it's beauty or structure.

"Tiffany stone" is a trade name used for a purple, blue and white gem material that can be cut and polished into beautiful beads, cabochons and tumbled stones. Geologically, Tiffany stone is a rock composed primarily of fluorite with smaller amounts of opal, calcite, dolomite, quartz, chalcedony, bertrandite and other materials. Other names used for Tiffany stone are "opalized fluorite," "ice cream stone," and "bertrandite."

Tiffany stone is a rare material. It is mined at one location worldwide - the Brush Wellman beryllium mine, at Spor Mountain, western Utah. It occurs there as nodules that are part of the ore produced at the mine. The nodules typically contain between one and two percent beryllium by weight.

The United States Geological Survey reports that the nodules are carbonate clasts that have been largely replaced by fluorite. Small amounts of bertrandite, a beryllium mineral with a chemical composition of Be4Si2O7(OH)2, occurs as submicroscopic grains within the fluorite.
Almost all of the Tiffany stone mined at Spor Mountain is crushed and used to produce beryllium. A small amount has been carried out of the mine by employees, and a small amount has been gathered by collectors who have rarely been allowed into the mine. These are the only sources of the gem material because Brush Wellman has always been interested in producing beryllium and has not been interested in Tiffany stone.
The most appropriate name for Tiffany stone is "opal fluorite" or "opalized fluorite." These names reasonably represent the composition of most specimens. Another popular name is "bertrandite." That name is incorrect because bertrandite is a mineral, which only comprises a few percent of the rock known as Tiffany stone. It is also called "ice cream stone" because of its delicious color.

There are numerous stories behind the name "Tiffany Stone." Some people attribute the name to Tiffany and Company, the famous luxury goods retailer. The company has never been associated with the mine or with Tiffany stone. Others attribute the name to the daughter of a Brush Wellman employee who collected the colorful nodules brought home by her father. This story is possible, but the names of the miner or his daughter are not found in any written record.