We have now recouped from the flights and had a day to walk around Arusha so that we all can get acclimated to the city and the climate.The weather here is not much different that what we were experiencing back home in the US.
Our primary broker has arranged for us to view what is available this week. This is through a handful of local dealers, runners and cutting firms. Sometimes we end up with some nice surprises.... like this fabulous Tanzanite.
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Nice juicy blue/purple Tanzanite trillion - beautiful stone, great look, but badly in need of a recut. We were really trying to focus on acquiring rough, so this was outside our thinking at the time. If I recall it was near 15cts or so. Maybe next trip.
So here's the two guys I'm traveling with. On the left is Peter Torraca of Houghton, New York. And on the right is Gene Flanigan from Millersburg, Pennsylvania. I think they are having some fun, but I should wait until later in the trip to see how they are doing.
Basically, every 5 to 10 minutes a fresh parcel shows up for us to review. And generally, we take turns on who goes first, but sometimes it really does not matter as we all have different interests. I tend to prefer the larger roughs, so many of the parcels were not a good fit for me. Whereas, other cutters have a different view of what they want to work on.
Here is a parcel of light-toned Grossular Garnets from the Lolatema Hills area just south of the Tanzanite One location near Mererani. The largest piece is about 2 grams, with many smaller goods that would not normally be suitable for me. I ended up with a small batch, and Peter cherry-picked some pieces as well. It finishes out ever so slightly richer in color than what you see here.
And now, the find of the day....
This, is a really premium parcel of pink to red Mahenge Spinels. They were not large crystals, but what color! Both Peter and Gene worked through this and made a nice score. Did I mention they were very pricey??
More to follow as we work through day III.
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