By Rich Barker, Barker & Company
At the start of the summer, sales of Peridot heat up at Barker & Company. My sister Ann and I sell a wide variety of gemstones, but Arizona Peridot is special to us. We love it for its pretty green colors and its abundance—Peridot is found in nearly every country, including Norway and Egypt, and even in Hawaii in the U.S. Peridot is also found in meteorites such as Pallasite, a type of stony-iron meteorite which contains olivine crystal inclusions. These are rare to find but very cool (and expensive).
Peridot accounts for just 5% of our inventory now, but at peak it was around 20%. For several years, however, China has been flooding the market with cheap and poorly cut Peridot that is heavily subsidized by the government, making it very difficult to compete with on price. This led to a drop in demand for Arizona-mined Peridot, which we used to buy regularly. I would drive out to the mine on the San Carlos Apache reservation every week and come home with around 100 pounds of rough! Those were very busy days! When the Chinese started mining their Peridot in abundance years ago, it cost less because of the government subsidies.
Rough Peridot from Arizona
Demand for Arizona Peridot cut stones stateside remains steady as we have regular customers for the small, calibrated goods, and the larger free size stones. Larger free size stones tend not to be as clean and bright as Pakistan and Burmese stones, but they are priced accordingly.
Ann and I continue to believe that selling Arizona Peridot is important, as it is an American gemstone, and it supports the San Carlos Apache tribe, a community always in need.
Rich Barker of Barker & Company with rough Arizona Peridot
Peridot from Pakistan is beautiful! The rough is really nice with big glassy crystals that can reach sizes of 50 grams, and it’s not unusual to get yields of 20% or more, as often the shape of the crystal lends itself easily to faceting a beautiful stone.
A pair of Pakistani Peridots weighing nearly 25 carats
We choose not to deal in Chinese Peridot for a number of reasons. Primarily, we want to support the San Carlos Apache, from whom we’ve bought for 25 years. They have been digging since at least the 1960s, and it is backbreaking work under the hot desert sun. The Apache miners work hard to bring you beautiful Arizona Peridot, and when you buy Arizona Peridot, you help support the families and community of the San Carlos Apache nation!
Peridot at the Arizona mine
Occasionally, we may buy a faceted Peridot from Burma for resale, but the bulk of our inventory is from Arizona and Pakistan.
A layout of round Pakistani Peridot weighing 133 carats
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