Sourcing Gemstones: Direct From The Mines

Sourcing Gemstones: Direct From The Mines

Dakota Stones sources our rough materials from all over the globe.

We have spent the  last 20 years building relationships with miners, rough suppliers and lapidary artists which has allowed us to gain access to some of the highest quality and most unique rocks being mined or discovered. Dakota Stones is often fortunate enough to be able to be the first to bring new materials to market for jewelry artists and rock collectors.

Working in a natural material is a truly labor of love. Dakota Stones is always working to create a high quality, consistent product, but nearly everything about the process of manufacturing in stones is working against those goals.

We have cut beads and pendants in over 300 stone types and probably attempted twice that number in stones that didn't work. But it is a very satisfying experience to take a new material from concept, to test cut, to product line and finally into someone’s jewelry design.

Note: The mining of our Dakota Stones must always be ethical, sustainable and pay all the workers in the supply chain a living wage.

Heliodor is a yellow, greenish yellow, or golden-yellow color of the beryl mineral. The yellowish colors are a result of minute amounts of iron in the mineral's crystal structure. The name "heliodor" is derived from two Greek words: “Helios” meaning sun and “Doron” meaning gift.

Heliodor's mystical power is said to radiate the warmth and power of sunshine, the illumination of higher thought, and a centered, more vibrant physical well-being. Its name translates from the Greek as a gift of the sun.

Some gemological references distinguish between the term’s heliodor and golden beryl, using “heliodor” strictly for beryl’s with a greenish yellow color and “golden beryl” for beryl’s with pure yellow to gold color.

Heliodor is a rarer gemstone and highly sought after; usually saved for fine jewelry. As a result, heliodor makes durable jewelry stones and come in sizes large enough for carving.

Topaz gets much of its popularity from its beautiful colors and as a November birthstone.

The distinct colors of topaz include rare and valuable yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, blue, and clear but may best be known for its hardness. It registers an 8 on the Mohs hardness scale, which makes it the hardest silicate mineral.

Topaz is commonly associated with silicic igneous rocks of the granite and rhyolite type. It typically crystallizes in granitic pegmatites or in vapor cavities in rhyolite lava flows including those at Topaz Mountain in western Utah and Chivinar in South America.

Pegmatite is an igneous rock that forms via slow crystallization at elevated temperature and pressure at depth. It exhibits large interlocking crystals usually greater in size than 25 mm. Most pegmatites are intrusive rocks found in sheets of rock near large masses of igneous rocks called batholiths. The most spectacular pegmatites contain abnormally large crystals mixed with medium sized and smaller crystals. Crystals up to many meters long have been reported.

The word pegmatite derives from the Greek and means “to bind together.”