This month we answer a recently received question... What kind of a gem is green elbaite? The short answer is elbaite is one member of the tourmaline group of minerals, but there is much more to the story.

Elbaite is named for the island of Elba, an Italian island off the coast of Tuscany. Green tourmaline was once mined there. Until recent times elbaite referred in many, many colors and shades. Now the gem industry generally refers to tourmaline by color. For example, here is a yellow tourmaline. The word tourmaline comes from the Sinhalese word tourmali, which means something like "mixed stone" in English.

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