Tourmaline in America

Pink Tourmaline Himalaya Mine

The great colored gemstones mines of the world are mainly in Asia, South America and Africa. Most people don't think of the United States when they think of colored stones, though Montana sapphire and Oregon sunstone are known internationally. But the USA is certainly not up there with Burma (Myanmar), Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Brazil, Tanzania and Mozambique as the source of the finest in colored gems.

That was not always true. At one time the USA was very famous indeed for its tourmaline. China's Dowager Empress Tz'u Hsi, the last Empress of China, loved the pink tourmaline mined in Southern California, and bought vast quantities of it, especially for carving. Under her influence, China's appetite for this gem created a boom in the California tourmaline industry after 1902, particularly at the Himalaya Mine in California. But the boom ended in 1911, soon after the death of the Empress in 1908.

Tourmaline production in the United States extended beyond California, with the initial discoveries occurring in 1822 in Maine. California's emergence as a tourmaline producer occurred 80 years later. Interestingly, tourmaline was the first gemstone mined in the United States by non-prehistoric or Native American miners. The mining of tourmaline commenced at Mount Mica, Maine, and has persisted to the present day with some intermittent breaks. In the early 1900s, Maine and California stood as the primary global producers of tourmaline gemstones.

Bi-Color Tourmaline Himalaya Mine

The Maine deposits tend to produce crystals in raspberry pink-red as well as minty greens. The California deposits are known for bright pinks, as well as interesting bicolors.

Records suggest that from 1898 until 1914, the Himalaya Mine in San Diego County was the world's largest producer of tourmaline. In 1904, production from the mine was at least 5.5 metric tons. In 1989, 84 years later, a single pocket in the mine was discovered, that produced 500 kilograms of tourmaline.

Mount Mica may have been the first tourmaline producer in Maine, but it is by no means the largest. Newry Hill, a spur off Plumbago Mountain, is the most prolific tourmaline producer in Maine. Since its discovery in 1898, production from the mine has exceeded thousands of kilograms of high-quality tourmaline.

Today most tourmaline comes from Brazil, Mozambique and Nigeria, with other deposits in Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The cost of mining the remaining tourmaline in Maine and California has become prohibitively high, but undoubtedly more deposits of excellent material are waiting to be discovered.