The malay garnet is a variety of garnet, and without a doubt, one of the rarest and most interesting. In essence, it is a combination of pyrope mineral and espesartine, which was first discovered during the 1960s. The valley of the Umba River, on the edge of Tanzania and Kenya, is the main site of malay garnet, as well as having been the site of its discovery. The malay garnet is classified as a kind of pyrope-pesartite, however, this is not the rule for all Malay garnets.
Although in its beginnings it was classified only as a variety of pyrope, as time went by the malay garnet was classified as pyropo-pesartite, since it was discovered that, in many specimens, it contained equal parts of espessartite or almandina. In addition, in certain cases, it was discovered that the stones contained small traces of grossular and andradite. The deepening in the investigation of this peculiar stone has made it possible to know that its composition is extremely variable, since it can contain from 2 to 94% of espesartite, from 0 to 83% of pyrope, from 2 to 78% of almandina, from 0 to 24% of bruta and from 0 to 4% of andradite.
The name “Malay” was derived from a Swahili term meaning “outcast”. This, because when the miners discovered it and offered it to the market, none of the local merchants wanted it, since it was not in any standard category of garnet, which led this stone to be discarded.
The hardness of malay garnet is excellent for jewelry, counting with a rating, on the Mohs scale, from 7 to 7.5. Very often, the malay garnet contains some inclusions that resemble needles, and that help distinguish it from other gems, although a chemical analysis is required to identify it.
The malay garnet can acquire a great diversity of colors, each of them very unique and interesting, such as an orange rose, a reddish orange, and yellowish-orange, all of them in several lighter or darker tones. Some of the rarest shades the malay garnet can acquire can include peach or honey, cinnamon, or even almost colorless specimens.
In general, the orange stones are rarer than the reddish ones, and stones with smaller amounts of brown are more sought after. However, something that differentiates the malay garnet is that it exhibits some red flashes, which any other type of garnet does not have, and that are caused by the traces of manganese and iron that they usually contain.
Due to the fact that the fire and the dispersion of malay garnets are extremely remarkable, when cutting them, it is set to face them to highlight these details of the stones, and that they are turned into ideal stones for the use in jewelery, and for which, of course, they have a high cost, taking advantage of its rarity and how luxurious any piece looks that contains it.
ALFA