Garnet
January's protective birthstone, used as jewelry for 5000 years — Bronze Age Egyptians wore it, medieval crusaders set it. Classic almandine sources include Rajasthan and Jaipur region (India), Bohemia (Czech pyrope), Sri Lanka and New York's Gore Mountain, home of the world's largest garnet crystals.
Known origins & mines
Gore Mountain Barton Mine · United States
World's largest garnet crystals — dinner-plate-sized almandine to one meter across — mined for abrasives since 1878; New York state gem sour…
Jaipur-Rajasthan Garnet Belt · India
Aravalli range mines feed Jaipur's centuries-old cutting industry with deep red almandine-pyrope — India remains the volume heartland of cla…
Bohemian Pyrope Mines · Czech Republic
Bohemian garnet ("Český granát") from Meronín-Třebenice volcanic hills defined European Victorian jewelry — tiny fire-red pyropes clustered …
Emerald Creek Star Garnet Area · United States
Idaho state gem: four-ray and rare six-ray star garnets dug by public permit from Emerald Creek gravels — the only significant star garnet l…
Garnet Ledge Stikine River · United States
Historic almandine deposits at the Stikine River mouth near Wrangell, worked since the 1890s and famously held by the first all-woman mining…
Tunduru Fields · Tanzania
River-flat diggings discovered 1994 producing rainbow sapphire parcels alongside spinel, garnet and rare taafeite — one of Africa's most div…