Ant Hill Garnets

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PinkDiamond
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Location: Ozark Mountains

Ant Hill Garnets

Post by PinkDiamond »

Do any of you have any ant hill garnets? I don't, but wouldn't mind having one of the purplish-red specimens for my collection, even though their color does not appeal to me, because of the back-story that goes along with them, which any of you who aren't familiar with it will learn about here, from the ISG. :)

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Ant Hill Garnets

Looking back at an amazing find from Sid Tucker at the Tucson Gem Shows

The Tucson Gem Shows always amaze me for the wonderful people and gemstones I find every year. One story from a previous year's trip still stands out. It's the story of the Ant Hill Garnets that I learned about from the wonderful folks at the Sid Tucker LLC booth at the GJX show. Alan Hodgkinson told me I had to go see them, and I found out later it was for both their Ant Hill Garnet and the amazing homemade cookies that they offered. For now, we will talk about the garnets.

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Out in the Arizona desert lands of the Navajo Nation, there exists, in fairly shallow deposits, beautiful pyrope garnets that are small enough to be carried to the surface by ants who are digging out new tunnels through the ground.

Hence the name: Navajo Ant Hill Garnets.

OK, I added the "Navajo" to the name as they are usually known just as "Ant Hill Garnets". But in truth, there is much in the way of jewelry and gemstones produced by the Navajo Nation that is important to this industry, and I believe they need to get more credit for their contribution to the industry, you know...beyond that issue of the U.S. Army pushing them off their native lands and out into the Arizona desert. But that is for another debate topic and another venue. For now, we will focus on what I am going to just call "Ant Hill Garnets", and what you are going to see will amaze you.

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According to the good folks at Sid Tucker, the deposits of Ant Hill Garnets are not mined commercially since they are on Navajo Nation land, but are gathered from the tops of the desert ant hills by Navajo women who go out and collect them. At left you see a collection of ant hill rough pebbles donated to us by Sid Tucker. Compare the photos above and at left and you can see that on its face, this material does not instill much confidence in producing fine quality garnet. But when you view this same pile with back lighting, the issue becomes far more clear.

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When you spread the material out and back-light the parcel, you quickly see the red colors of the pyrope garnets that the ants brought up out of the ground. All things considered, there are actually quite a few garnets in the mix as we put several parcels of rough together to make the image at right and below.

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Now, I know what you are thinking: These ants are small, so just how big can these garnets be if the ants carry them to the surface? Well, the answer may surprise you...

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I purchased the three Ant Hill Garnets you see at left and they range in size from .91 carat to 1.55 carats. Now those are some pretty gosh-darned strong ants! Am I right? Yikes!

And the colors! From an intense purple/red to sunset orange color. Just amazing and beautiful, and a lot of other descriptive terms that could be used to describe these wonderful garnets and the even-more amazing story they tell. Below this image is a color image of the master color set that I photographed at the Sid Tucker booth.

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But we are not done with this amazing story just yet. There are also color change Ant Hill Garnets! Due to the size of these stones the color change is difficult to photograph, but using our Meiji Techno microscope I was able to capture the beautiful color change of two specimens of Ant Hill Garnet that I obtained from the Tuckers. Below you see that pronounced color change effect and the amazing colors available from these same two garnets seen below left and right.

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And of course, no story of Ant Hill Garnet would be complete without the finished product, and the people who produce it. Below left is a beautiful ring set with Ant Hill Garnets, and below right are the Tuckers. Wonderful people with an amazing story of an amazing gemstone. And the cookies! They have amazing homemade cookies that make the trip to their booth even more exciting! Go for the peanut butter cookies...or maybe not. Leave those for me!

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I hope you enjoyed this tour of Sid Tucker's Ant Hill Garnet. The colors, the people, the story and everything about this beautiful gemstone is worth your time to investigate further.

Ant Hill Garnet is a highly profitable revenue stream that should be of great interest to jewelers everywhere. All natural and with a story that is totally unique, this is a gemstone for the future.



Robert James FGA, GG
President, International School of Gemology

If you would like to contact Sid Tucker, here is the phone number and email.

208-337-4351 Sid Tucker LLC or email: stgems@citlink.net

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To learn more about the International School of Gemology and our world-class programs in gemology and jewelry appraisal, click here: http://www.schoolofgemology.com

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SwordfishMining
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Re: Ant Hill Garnets

Post by SwordfishMining »

Sounds like how my friend Rick gets his peridot. Befriend the miners. You should also get some Missouri rubies. The garnets that come from the sapphire mines there. Not sure if they ever get color changing. Ive seen them for sale at Q PowWow. Ill keep my eyes open for some.
I'll jump over my shadow. https://www.virginvalleyopal.com"
Opals & more at my ESTY store https://swordfishmining.etsy.com"
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