Tanzanite is one of many critical precious (not in the precious category although) gemstones on earth. It is generally blue in colour. It belongs to the zoisite family mineral. It is found or extracted only from a place i.e Tanzania, which justifies the name Tanzanite. The factor that makes this mineral or gemstone one of the rarest is its mining area. The mining area of tanzanite is nearly 7km long and 2 km wide (approx) near Meherani Hills situated in Simanjiro District, Manyara Region, Tanzania. The name Tanzanite was given by Tiffiny & Co. in the name of the country in which tanzanite was founded. In 1968 Tanzanites came into the market for commercial purposes. According to AGTM, Tanzanite falls under the birthstone category.
The Discovery of Tanzanite was a surprising event. In the year 1967, a gold prospector named Manuel de Souza was heading for a journey to Arushi, he found transparent fragments of blue and blue-purple gem crystals near Mehrerani hills.
He predicted those crystals would be olivine, later he found out it was not olivine but dumortierite, but he was not satisfied with his conclusion so he showed those crystals to many geologists and experts. One of them was John Saul, he told Manuel de Souza that it was not dumortierite. Now John Saul through his extreme contacts the sample reached the Gemological Institute of America, where it was discovered that it is a new Gem Discovered. This decision of GIA was also accepted by many renowned universities But Ian McCloud, a government geologist for Tanzania stationed in Dodoma, was the first to correctly identify the object.
Before the mines were nationalised by the Tanzanian government in 1971, an estimated two million carats of tanzanite were extracted in Tanzania starting in 1967.