Beware of Fakes and Imitations
We need to be very clear on two important points: According to the Chinese mining industry there is no red andesine mine in Tibet, there is no yellow andesine mine in Mongolia. Over the past year a great deal of misinformation has been disseminated regarding a Chinese source for copper based feldspar. The information has been put out by those wishing to further a deception that is hurting the market for genuine Plush Sunstone by trying to steal away the business rightfully due the Plush Oregon miners. And more important, it has caused millions of dollars of damage to consumers. At left is an image from a published article that shows a mud pie full of Chinese andesine that was created for this promotion photograph.
A review of the ISG research that proved the Chinese are diffusion treating feldspar and selling it as all natural “Tibet” andesine.
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According to documents provided to the ISG office by JTV and DSN, for many years the Chinese company, Andegem.com, sold diffusion treated andesine to the television shopping channels without proper disclosure. This caused a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit to be filed against Jewelry Television and Direct Shopping Network. To this day the Chinese through Andegem.com have not admitted the deception on consumers.
The International School of Gemology researched this situation for over a year, finally finding the “Red Dagger” inclusion in a Chinese diffused andesine that proved this treatment for the world gem markets. We found several methods to identify this treatment in spite of Andegem.com refusing to admit the non-disclosed treatment they continue to sell to this day.
The artificially engorged lamella twinning planes of diffusion treated feldspars are full of diffusion filler material and flux as found in the Chinese diffusion treated andesine. These features, when present, are diagnostic for diffusion treatment. They are not always present.
Another diagnostic feature is the green interior and red exterior colors. Completely reversed for what a true copper based sunstone would show. This feature is due to the treatment process and not copper oxidation as in the natural and genuine Plush Sunstone. Any Chinese andesine with a green interior should be considered diffusion treated as this is a diagnostic feature of Chinese diffused andesine.
Artificially engorged lamella can appear without filler material. The ease at which these are often visible is another strong indicator of diffusion treatment. In the slide show below is a yellow Mexican feldspar that was used as the original yellow feldspar before treatment. You will see how this stone did not treat properly and was sold cheap by Thai dealers on eBay. The immersion cell will show the problem when testing these stones.
The comparison of inclusions is an important step in identifying the Chinese diffusion treated andesine as Mexican in origin. The Chinese have been reported to continue to import yellow feldspar from Mexico as their source for feldspar, due to the fact that there is no feldspar mine capable of producing enough material in China.
Mexico is not the only source of the feldspar used by the Chinese to diffusion treat feldspar. As shown by the hematite platelet in the slide image below, feldspar from East Africa and India is suspected as used to diffusion treat the feldspar to create the treated andesine for the Chinese sellers.
Unfortunately, Direct Shopping Network is a part of this situation by their selling of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Andesine without proper disclosure of its treated status. DSN is currently subject to a class action lawsuit regarding their failure to disclose the treated nature of their andesine purchased from Andegem.com.
Please review the slide show below to see these features....
Here is a partial listing of those who have been reported to sell diffusion treated andesine without proper disclosure. This includes those who claim the material is all natural. We challenge any of these sellers to prove a mine in Tibet or Mongolia or Congo. Or to prove a source for Ruby Sunstone or Emerald Sunstone that is factual. This list will be constantly updated. If any seller has stopped representing this Chinese diffusion treated andesine, or any diffusion treated andesine, as natural please let us know so we can update your listing:
Jewelry Television Valitutti Jewelry (ValituttiJewelry.com
Direct Shopping Network eBay
ShopNBC .......more coming soon!
GemsTV
Litto Gems, Hong Kong
King Star Jewellery, Hong Kong
Amazon.com
A brief listing of sellers.....
A brief listing of information articles.....
Here is a partial listing of important articles and links to provide you with more information regarding diffusion treated andesine. Please continue to note that to this day all scientific evidence points to the fact that there are no mines in China, that claims of Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone are false, the Congo mine has been dismissed as false, and the reports like those from the Gemmological Association of All Japan have proven to be fabrications of the truth. Here are those links....
The Great Andesine Scam Andesine Alert
Sunrise Over Oregon Olympic Andesine Redux
Answers on Andesine Turning Iron Into Copper
A brief listing of trade names.....
Here is a brief listing of trade names under which diffusion treated andesine or feldspar is known to be sold without proper disclosure. If you have a new example please contact us so we can add this to the list:
2008 Beijing Olympic Andesine Ruby Sunstone
Tibenite Emerald Sunstone
Lizasine Solaris Sunstone
“...the AGTA will now require its members who sell or consign any red andesine-labradorite to disclose it as diffused material..... If, the material is natural as in the case of particular Oregon material, then it may be disclosed as untreated”.
American Gem Trade Association, 13 May 2009
The ISG has recently been in contact with several offices in China in a search to confirm any claimed “andesine” mine in Tibet or Mongolia. Searches from inside China have turned up the report that no one there has heard of any Tibetan andesine mine or Mongolian feldspar mine. In fact, the only people to have reported any such mines are the one’s who are benefitting from the sale of this diffusion treated material. To date, not one formal Chinese government office, not one Chinese mining association office, and not one Chinese mining industry publication has known anything about any gem quality feldspar mine in Tibet or Mongolia. We quote our latest communication from the Mongolian Mining Journal:
Unfortunately we have no information about any gem quality mine in Mongolia. If we find information on a mine of this type we will provide that to you.
Editor, Mongolian Mining Journal, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, China 24 September 2009
And perhaps just as important the US based American Gem Trade Association now requires that all members disclose any andesine from any source outside of Oregon, USA to be sold with the disclosure that it is diffusion treated:
