Published May 2017  •  Updated March 2024  •  Read Time: 8 minutes
Tanzanite is a valuable blue-purple gemstone from Tanzania.  It was discovered in 1967 after a brush fire in cleared the plains below Mount Kilimanjaro.  The area was strew with brownish-red Zoisite and the heat from the flames created a chemical reaction that turned the stones blue-purple.  A few samples were sent to Tiffany & Co and the jewelry company branded them as “Tanzanites” and introduced them to the world.  The gem has a beautiful energy that unites the heart and mind to create a single wise and heart-centered purpose.   It helps us to stay the course, to adjust as necessary and to always keep learning.

Tanzanite

Tanzanite Meaning

Spiritual Healing Properties

Tanzanite connects the mind and heart so they can work together in a balanced and powerful way. It helps us to recognize what our heart is yearning to do and shows us how we can practically follow that yearning. Tanzanite helps us to ground our spiritual beliefs in our everyday actions. Rather than being a “Sunday Christian” or the equivalent, it reminds us that our true religion is shown in how we treat ourselves, our loved ones, strangers, and the world at large. What we say only matters, if it matches our actions. Tanzanite helps us to hear messages whispered from the Divine, as well as the promptings of own personal Spirit Guides and Guardian Angels. It can also help us to better understand our own intuition and psychic insights. Tanzanite offers protection during spiritual travels and during times of great personal transformation. It helps us to move beyond self-limiting concepts and step into our full Personal Power so that we can achieve our goals. Tanzanite invites us to be a force of goodness and to leave the world better than we found it.

Metaphysical Properties Thulite
Chakra Heart (4th), Throat (5th), Third Eye (6th) and Crown (7th)
Element Wind
Numerology 2
Zodiac Gemini, Libra and Sagittarius

Emotional Healing Properties

Tanzanite reveals our heart’s wisdom to us and helps us to put it into words and actions. It helps us to explore what we are being called to do as our life’s mission and how we can best get there. Tanzanite helps us to stay emotionally and physically in balance while we are questioning, growing, and wrestling with life’s many distractions. It encourages us to be compassionate and loving towards ourselves and others. Tanzanite also helps us to keep the big picture in mind and be patient with our own progress. It helps us to choose useful and honest metrics to judge ourselves and our progress. Tanzanite encourages us to step into our power and to stop making excuses. It promises us that we are far more capable than we give ourselves credit for.

Mental Healing Properties

Tanzanite calms a hyperactive mind so that we can think clearly about complex topics and not let our emotions run away with us. It helps us to logically explore the nature of the problems we face and it provides inspiration for happy solutions. Tanzanite encourages us to do what works, what blesses, and what protects all the parties involved. It helps us to see the big picture while also recognizing the hidden costs in the details. Tanzanite encourages us to be creative and consider new perspectives, but it also helps us to stay on track and not waste time on useless mental tangents. It can also helps us to avoid thinking about things repetitively, especially negative memories or fear which can get caught in a mental loop. It helps us to better assess the different parts of ourselves and our past and to make peace with them. Tanzanite is an excellent talisman for anyone who works as a therapist, counselor, coach or healer and who need to be able to help their clients understand the meaning behind their emotions and how to move forward.

Physical Healing Properties

Tanzanite is recommended for anyone with a stressful lifestyle experiencing symptoms of adrenal fatigue. Tanzanite helps us to recognize when chronic stress is negatively affecting our body. Rather than just focusing on healing the body, Tanzanite asks us to look to the root cause and actively reduce stress levels so that our body can heal itself. If reducing stress feels “impossible,” Tanzanite gently chides us for a lack of imagination and helps us to step back into our power. There are always things that can be done. Tanzanite is a lovely talisman for anything involving the adrenal glands and thyroid, as well when we need to strengthen our spine. Tanzanite is also a comforting talisman when a loved one is in a coma and we are praying they will come back to us.

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Tanzanite Mineralogy

Where does Tanzanite come from?

Tanzanite is the blue-purple variety of Zoisite.  To be called “Tanzanite” it should be mined in Tanzania.  Blue-purple Zoisites are also found in Pakistan and the United States.

Mining and Treatments

Tanzanite is mined at its primary deposit. In Tanzania it is the primary purpose of many artisanal and small-scale mines.  For many years the miners could sell the rough stones to international buyers, but the Tanzanian government has banned the practice.  The reasoning being that when rough stones are exported, the home country only gets a tiny percentage of the profit.  If the stones are cut and polished in Tanzania, value is added.  However, Tanzania does not have the ability to process the gems at the same volume as what was previously possible.  If the supply is lower, but demand remains the same, prices go up.

In the United States “Prairie Tanzanite” is mined in tandem with Green Jade. The Zoisite ranges in shade from blue to pink.

Green Zoisite and pink Thulite are natural stones, enhanced only through cutting and polishing.  Blue-purple Tanzanite can be natural, but is often heat-treated to bring out a more vivid shade.

Tanzanite Placeholder
Tanzanite

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Mineral Family

Tanzanite is the blue-purple variety of Zoisite, a Sorosilicate mineral. Silicates are minerals which contain the elements Silicon (a light gray shiny metal) and Oxygen (a colorless gas). Together, these two elements form a tetrahedron – a shape similar to a pyramid – with a Silicon atom in the center and Oxygen atoms at each of the four corners. These tetrahedra connect with other chemical structures, in six different ways, to form various minerals and rocks. There are six main groups of Silicate minerals, and these main groups are further subdivided into secondary subdivisions, such as Quartz and Feldspar. Zoisites belongs to the sorosilicate family, in which two tetrahedral groups share a single oxygen molecule.

Tanzanite’s energy works well with its family – other sorosilicate minerals.  Try it in combination with Danburite, DragonstoneEpidote, and Idocrase.  It also works well with other colors of Zoisite including green Zoisite, Ruby Zoisite and Thulite.

Tanzanite Formation and Crystal Associates

Zoisite is formed by regional metamorphism and by the hydrothermal alteration of igneous rocks. It is sometimes found in Quartz veins and pegmites.  Tanzanite’s coloring is due to heat, rather than an element.  In nature, the heat comes from natural brush fires.  The same transformation can be replicated in a factory.

Tanzanite’s energy works well with its “friends” – crystal associates formed in the same geological environment.  Try it in combination with Clear Calcite, Clear Quartz, and Prehnite.

Mineralogy Tanzanite
Chemical Formula Ca2Al3 (SiO4)3(OH)
Cleavage Perfect
Color Blue-purple
Crystal System Orthorhombic
Form/Habit Prismatic
Fracture Conchoidal to uneven, brittle
Hardness – Mohs Scale 6-7
Luminescence Orangey-yellow (long wave)
Luster Vitreous
Mineral Family Sorosilicates
Specific Gravity 3.2-3.4
Streak White
Transparency Translucent to Opaque

History of Tanzanite

Tanzanite is a rare variety of blue-purple Zoisite.  It was discovered and popularized in the 20th century.  As a result, it was not included in any older lapidaries, texts that describe gemstones and their powers, but it is included in many modern ones.  While blue-purple Zoisite has been found in several locations, most of the precious gemstones are from the Mererani Hills deposit in northern Tanzania.

Tanzanite was discovered in January 1967, shortly after a large bush fire had swept across the plains below Mount Kilimanjaro.  The fire burned away the grass, leaving the ground exposed, and gave a natural “heat treatment” to the reddish-brown and clear Zoisites in the area, turning them a stunning blue-purple.  Shortly after the burn, Jumanne Ngomaa a Masaii tribesman and amateur prospector crossed the Mererani Hills and saw the gems glittering in the sunlight.  He didn’t recognize them and so he took the gems to Nairobi, a city with a strong gemstone and mineral industry for formal identification.

The gems were shown to geologists and wholesale gemstone-dealer, John Saul, who quickly determined that they weren’t Sapphires, Iolites, or any other well-known blue gemstone. He sent a few samples to his father, Hyman Saul, the vice-president of Saks 5th Avenue in New York City.  Hyman Saul took the mystery stones to the Gemological Institute of America who soon identified them as blue-purple Zoisite.  The color was so remarkable that news of the find very quickly reached the ears of  Henry B. Platt, one of the leaders of the New York based jewelry company, Tiffany and Co.

Ndugu Jumanne Ngoma, Tanzanite

Ndugu Jumanne Ngoma

Henry B. Platt instantly fell in love with the new gemstone, but thought that the name “blue Zoisite” wasn’t very marketable.  He feared that the word Zoisite sounded too similar to “Suicide”! So he re-branded the gems as Tanzanite and revealed it in October 1968.  The marketing campaigns focused on the rarity of the stone, with early advertisements saying that Tanzanite could only be found in two locations “Tanzania and Tiffanys!”.  The gem has been aggressively marketed by Tiffany and Co ever since, even going so far as to call it the “Gemstone of the (20th) Century”.

In 1971, the government of Tanzania nationalized the mine at Mererani Hills.  Today, this mine remains the only source for gem-quality Blue Zoisite in Tanzania.   It is a small deposit, a mere 4 miles by 1.2 miles (7km-2km), divided into four blocks.  It is composed of hundreds of individual claims, both pits and underground tunnels, which are closely guarded and mined around the clock.  In 2017, the Tanzania government decided to build a wall around the Mererani Hills deposit, with only one gate, to prevent illegal mining and tax evasion.  Tanzania is a very mineral-rich nation, but also one of the most poverty-stricken.  It is estimated that only 5% of the global trade in Tanzanite directly benefits Tanzania, the remaining 95% is pocketed by wealthy mining corporations.

While “Tanzanite” is suppose to be from Tanzania, a similar-looking variety of blue-purple Zoisite has been found in Pakistan and is often marketed as Tanzanite too.  Similarly, blue-purple-pink Zoisite found in the United States is nicknamed “Prairie Tanzanite.”

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