The American Gem Society (AGS) announces two events for 2021: Confluence in April and Conclave in September.

The production of Chinese freshwater pearls faced little disruption from the global pandemic according to sources at the World Pearl Congress.

Unusual color zoning likely indicates multiple treatments of a Fancy Intense green-yellow diamond.

Single irradiated CVD synthetic was identified in a parcel of irradiated natural melee diamonds in the Tokyo lab.

Manufactured gold-in-quartz jewelry was examined in the Carlsbad lab.

Declared synthetic diamond identified as natural in the Carlsbad lab.

An unexpected manmade feature is found in a pink sapphire from Myanmar.

A boulder opal contained an unusual carpet of needle-like lepidocrocite inclusions along the interface between the opal and the ironstone matrix.

A high-quality bangle with two-phase inclusions, similar to natural quartz, is found to be synthetic material.

A Fancy pink type IIa diamond showing cuboctahedral growth and greenish blue phosphorescence is shown to be a natural, treated colored diamond.

A newly discovered mineral, crowningshieldite, was accepted on September 18, 2018, by the International Mineralogical Association.

Researchers gathered at the 22nd meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) to discuss several colored stone topics ranging from treatments to the latest advancements in understanding gem minerals.

Unusual needle-like inclusions in ruby were identified as sillimanite.

Examination of smoky quartz from Inner Mongolia reveals rare arsenopyrite inclusions.

A variety of chalcedony from Indonesia displays a multitude of blue, green, and metallic inclusions.

A report on a new blue variety of amblygonite-montebrasite from Rwanda.

FTIR spectroscopy shows that the existence of carbon dioxide gas bubbles in a negative crystal in sapphire is no longer proof of the absence of heat treatment.

Black beryl beads display six-rayed and twelve-rayed stars.