Tsavolites are among the most valuable gemstones in the garnet group. Their extraordinary combination of intense colour, impressive brilliance and high hardness makes them particularly sought-after.
Thanks to their purity and colour intensity, tsavolites are especially appealing to the human sense of beauty. These properties predestine them for use in unique jewellery creations - whether as magnificent individual stones or as calibrated gemstones in exclusive series.
The bright, intense green colour of tsavolite is due to its low trace element content of vanadium and chromium. These fine, bright green gemstones are very popular with designers, jewellers and goldsmiths worldwide.
The economically significant deposits of tsavolites were first discovered in Tanzania in the mid-1960s by the Scottish geologist Campbell Bridges. These sites are part of the so-called ‘Mozambique Belt’, a large rock belt that runs through several countries in East Africa. Years later, Bridges also discovered tsavolite deposits on the Kenyan side of this rock belt - very close to the well-known Tsavo National Park, to which the gemstone variety owes its name. To date, Kenya and Tanzania are the only countries in which tsavolites are mined on an economically relevant scale.
Alongside demantoids and mandarin garnets, tsavolites are among the most valuable and rarest garnets. As the crystals are often only very small, the supply of rough crystals from which faceted stones of over one carat can be cut is very limited.
The trade names ‘tsavolite’ and ‘tsavorite’ are synonymous, i.e. they refer to the same gemstone. The name ‘tsavorite’ was introduced in the mid-1970s by the renowned jewellery company Tiffany & Co. to publicise this fascinating new gemstone discovery. Since then, the terms ‘tsavorite’ and ‘tsavolite’ have become established in the English-speaking world and are both recognised by CIBJO. In German, the corresponding terms are ‘Tsavolith’ (corresponding to the Greek term lithos = stone) and ‘Tsavorit’.