Calsilica - Myth or Reality

twenty years ago, calsilica started appearing in jewelrythe binding agent in the stone was a mix of natural
shows and gem and mineral exhibitions around theclay minerals that hardened under high pressure and
world. The specimens shown had bright and vividtemperatures, rendering the stone in the form that we
colors that spanned the spectrum of the rainbow!now see it today. This did little to quiet rumors that
Quite naturally, jewelry designers and fashion jewelrycalsilica was indeed a man-made material and not a
fans became enamored with this beautiful gemstone.naturally occurring stone as was originally claimed. In
Over the next several years, there was a steadyfact, new rumors of a spectacular deposit of natural
increase in the demand for calsilica for jewelry designs,calsilica in China started to spread in the world of
and soon calsilica earrings, silver pendants, rings, andgems and gemology. The specimens supposedly
other items began to appear on the market. Online andobtained from the mine in China were quite beautiful
traditional jewelry stores could barely keep up withand their colors and patterns rivaled those of the
demand and the price for this stone increased steadily.specimens from the original mine in Mexico.
Once the initial euphoria of a new and beautifulTo quell these rumors and answer the many questions
gemstone in the world of jewelry died down,surrounding this gemstone the Swiss Gemological
gemologists and some well-informed jewelry fansInstitute (SSEF) undertook a laboratory investigation of
started to ask questions about the origin of this stone.calsilica in 2002, and published their findings in one of
In most cases, these questions arose from naturaltheir newsletters in 2003. To begin their investigation,
curiosity, while in other cases the questions wereSSEF purchased two calsilica specimens at a gem
borne from suspicions concerning the authenticity ofand mineral show in France in 2002. The seller of
calsilica. At first, suppliers staunchly claimed that calsilicacourse claimed that the stones were natural and even
was a natural stone that was discovered in a mine inproduced photographs of the mine in Mexico. To
the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. They claimed thatfurther bolster their claim, they even had a letter of
mining of the stone continued to present day and evenauthentication from a laboratory in the United States
provided a few photographs of the mining operations.stating that the stones were not man-made. SSEF
The photographic evidence was inconclusive and theperformed microscopic examinations and laboratory
doubts about the origin of calsilica persisted.tests on the specimens, and found that the base
Gemologists and geologists requested permission tomaterials were indeed a natural form of calcite. They
visit the mine and visually inspect and confirm thealso discovered however, that the colored streaks in
deposits in Chihuahua. All these requests were deniedthe stone contained man-made coloring pigments.
on the grounds of proprietary information. SuppliersThey also found that the binding agent was a
persisted with the claim that calsilica was a naturaltransparent soft, plastic-like material very similar to
material – a natural form of microcrystallineparaffin wax, and not natural clay minerals as was
calcite, that was found in the veins or seams of theoriginally claimed. This investigation proved once and
volcanic rhyolite rock formation. The claim was thatfor all that calsilica is a man-made stone.