The gemstones of Nuristan

Nuristan is one of the great gem countries of the world, and very few people who own its stones could find it on a map. The pink and green tourmalines sold as Paprok, the kunzite sold as Mawi or simply as Afghan, and much of the aquamarine and morganite that reaches the market through Peshawar come out of the granite veins of these valleys and the two provinces beside them.

This page is a plain guide to them: what the stones are, where each field actually lies, how they are mined and sold, what is known about the lithium in the same rock, and what a buyer should watch for. We are from Nuristan and not geologists, so the geology here follows the published surveys, which are listed at the foot. Where the surveys disagree about a place, we say so, because a good many stones are sold under the wrong name.

The same veins that give kunzite hold lithium in quantity, because kunzite is only the clear, coloured form of spodumene, and most spodumene is grey and opaque. The Soviet surveys estimated about 2.1 million tonnes of lithium oxide to a depth of a hundred metres in six fields of Nuristan, the largest at Pasghushta. Vein samples ran at between one and a half and just over two per cent.

Those figures need to be read with care, and the American geologists who republished them say so. They are estimates made in the 1970s from what could be seen at the surface, with no sign of drilling or trenching, in mountains where the veins lie between 3,000 and 4,700 metres with no road to most of them. They describe a possibility. The veins also carry tantalum, beryllium and caesium.

Kunzite fades. Its colour weakens in strong light and heat, and a test on pink Nuristan kunzite found it nearly colourless after a week in direct sun. Wear it in the evening, as jewellers say, and keep it out of a shop window. Kunzite is also often irradiated and heated to deepen the colour, and that colour fades as well. It splits easily along two directions, so it needs a careful setting.

Tourmaline is commonly heated, which is stable and cannot be detected, and sometimes irradiated, which can fade. Most aquamarine on the market has been heated to make it a purer blue. Glass and synthetic spinel are still sold as aquamarine.

Ask where a stone is from and expect a loose answer. Nuristan, in the trade, has long covered the fields of Laghman and Kunar as well, and a famous name such as Paprok sells better than an obscure one. A seller who can tell you the valley, and who mined it, is worth more than a certificate with one word on it.