In contrast to the green of emerald or even Paraiba and other tourmaline, green garnets generally have a warmer tone - always mixed in with a little bit of yellow. Even the vanadium tsavorite, the darkest of the grossulars, has a teeny bit of yellow in it. And demantoid garnet, the brightest of the andradite group with the highest dispersion, definitely has yellow undertones.

Mali garnet is a little bit in between these two related forms of garnet. Chemically, it is a hybrid between andradite and grossular. It has a higher brilliance than grossular but is also lighter in color, closer to mint garnet but warmer in tone. And a little less saturated than demantoid garnet in color.

The vast majority of Mali garnet is yellow: orange yellow, brownish yellow, lemon yellow. True greens are very rare and usually do not come in larger than half carat sizes.

Mining for Mali garnet is extremely difficult. The mining region – the Kayes region which borders on Senegal, is hot, dry, and remote. Mining has to take place under very harsh conditions, far away from civilization and not accessible by car. The yield is low with the green gems taking years to collect into a parcel. Much of the material is over saturated or included, and therefore not very sellable. Not many minors work these regions, making it even more difficult to obtain on the open market.

Mining has been made additionally difficult because of political unrest between a few powerful groups: the Mali army, religious extremists, the French army and Russian armed groups.

Click here to see the garnets pictured above in the store!

The supplier who sold me this production (and I bought almost all of it), has been working with locals for over half a decade, buying everything that comes out including the miners' “efforts”, meaning that they get paid even for poor material which raises the price of the rest. The small production that I bought is entirely green and was probably the result of one small find because the colors are so uniform.

In terms of its price, however, Mali garnet is actually way below the apple green demantoids, and about half the cost of tsavorite or its lighter sibling, mint garnet. And as a garnet, it is not soft, not treated, and fairly easy to work with. That makes it a very desirable gem: it has the right dispersion, the right color intensity, and it is relatively inexpensive in these smaller sizes.

Sizes over ½ carat are extremely rare so I have 5x3 pears or 4x3 ovals, as well as smaller stones. The cutting on these is excellent.