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Fakes & FraudsIrradiated Pakistani Topaz

6th Nov 2008 05:10 UTCJesse Fisher Expert

At the just passed Munich show I noticed a number of dealers selling some unusually deep colored sherry/amber pegmatitic topaz, supposedly from Pakistan. Some were on typical pegmatite matrix and some of these had dark smoky quartz, which is unusual from Pakistan in my experience. I was told by several individuals that these specimens have been irradiated to deepen the color, hense the dark smoky quartz. Attached is a photo of one crystal. To me it appears more like Burmese in habit but was for sale as Pakistan. Buyer beware.

7th Nov 2008 22:01 UTCPeter Lyckberg Expert

Hi Jesse

Already in the mid 80s quite a bit of Pakistani topaz came to Europe irradiated.

But, it is not only topaz, spodumene, tourmaline, beryls... anything could be irradiated. If you know your areas of

Pakistan and Afghanistan well, you can spot some irradiated specimens on the market and published in books!

At Tucson 1990 a dealer came to me and handed me a specimen from Afghanistan to have a look at home....

of course I had a look immediately. Would never dream of bringing anything across a boarder whether it is a "stuffed teddy bear", "a juice package"or a "mineral specimen". It was a floater white quartz group with an incredible tourmaline crystal spray some 20 cm tall... extremely esthetic. Only problem was the grey green color... the worst I ever saw and the piece was not for free.... I handed it back after some weeks.

I could bet that this specimen sometime later ended up beeing hit by some highe energy particles... and is now red on smoky quartz.

I joked ones with someone who was selling something really very common for over 50 000 in Tucson, several years in a row.... unbelieavable that people were buying these..... I aksed him if he wanted me to make them in some other colors... and YES PLEASE...

Now, that would have been extremely easy with simple chemical compaunds for this specie and straucture...

Of course I did not do it, nor did I tell him how to do it.

Peter

9th Dec 2008 04:17 UTCIbrahimJameel

One of my contacts in Northern Pakistan told me that the price of colorless topaz on the local market has recently increased substantially.

The reason? It used to be cheap (cheaper than the brown ones from the same area, which are more desirable as specimens)--then someone figured out that they could turn a nice profit by taking it and blasting it with radiation....

Wherever they get it done, I am told the fee is by the kilogram...

Luckily though, its usually not too difficult to see the darker-than normal color that gives them away.

I was looking at the stuff on the table of a Pakistani dealer at Springfield--I asked him if a small lot of topaz crystals were irradiated. He hushedly said they were, and offered me a discount, should I be interested. There's nothing wrong with selling irradiated topaz... but it should be labeled. Most Pakistani dealers do not do this.

13th Feb 2009 13:00 UTCAymeric Longi

the pictured one looks a very lot like burmese indeed.

Topaz from Katland sometimes get irradiated too, yielding bright orange crystal reminding of those found in Ouro Pretto. I've seen quite a bunch of it being sold on ebay, both crystals and specimen.

13th Feb 2009 16:08 UTCIbrahimJameel

Aymeric,

The specimens from Katlang are usually not irradiated. They tend to have enough natural color and they derive enough value form their locality that they are left alone. Plus, Katlang is one of the less prolific topaz localities, and the crystals are usually not as large as at other sites (so not really worth irradiating, as the "service" is performed by the pound.

It is the colorless or weakly colored stuff from the Shigar valley that gets blasted

Some of these are then sold as being "from Katlang," because Katlang pieces are worth more, and the orange color resulting form irradiation is closer to the natural stuff from Katlang (that is, when the specimens are not overcooked and made brown...).

Luckily though, Katlang topaz is very distinctive in appearance (long, slender crystals, a certain luster, etc) and the matrixes are different than the standard albite/cleavlandite that come with topazes from nearly every other locality in Pakistan.

Ibrahim

6th Nov 2009 11:55 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

In Munich I bought a loose, brown, colour-zoned (small top part almost colourless, rest pale brown transparent, almost inclusion-free) topaz from Nagar, Gilgit.

The colour is similar to that in http://www.mindat.org/photo-209997.html.

Is it probably irradiated? Does the colourless zone contradict any irradiation?

There were also xls on matrix, but I can't remember if the associated quartz xls were smoky or not.

9th Nov 2009 13:43 UTCPeter Lyckberg Expert

There is no topaz carrying pegmatite at Nagar. Nagar is the village the Chunar Bakhoor aquamarine/fluorite/fluorapatite etc on muscovite was referred to although it belongs to the village of Sumayar.

The nearest pegmatite field yielding topaz in pegmatite like this one id the Haramosh mountains to the n of Sassi-Shengus but most topaz from pegmatitic environment is in general from the Shigar-Braldu valleys further to the east, quite a distance from "Nagar". It would be like referring to a Knappenwand epidote as from "Andermatt" and meaning Göshenerthal : )

Colorwise I can not be certain from the image, but there was one young Pakistani dealer, having about 1-2 m table who had several clearly irradiated specimen (he was right at the end of a table among ubersee) next to a pillar.

This year there has been almost no topaz production at all in Pakistan and little production at any of the pegmatite districts.

Hope it is to some help.

9th Nov 2009 13:58 UTCPeter Lyckberg Expert

Sorry misspelling: Chumar Bakhoor

9th Nov 2009 14:28 UTCKnut Eldjarn 🌟 Manager

It was quite evident that a number of dealers in Munich had irradiated Topaz crystals from Paksitan - much like the crystal pictured by Uwe Kolitsch. They must also have been exposed to a considerable amount of irradiation to acquire such a deep cognac colour. Strangely enough the presence of zoning may support rather than contradict artificial irradiation. Many years ago I purchased a medium sherry coloured single topaz crystal from Pakistan which I believe was natural. Following 2 years of exposure to daylight the crystal had become colourless. I then included the crystal in a parcel of medical equipment to be sterilized by gamma-irradiation, and it returned with a pale sherry colour - but much less evenly distributed than the previous "natural" colour. The natural backgournd radiation in granites and pegmatites causing the natural sherry colour probably has penetrated more deeply into the crystals over a much longer period of time compared to the artificial irradiation used.

Another mineral which I believe to be irradiated is spodumene in the bright green colours also offered this year by many Pakistani dealers. I suspect most of these "hiddenites" to be a product of enhancement by irradiation.

Knut

9th Nov 2009 16:17 UTCAlessio Piccioni

9th Nov 2009 16:26 UTCJesse Fisher Expert

At Munich this year I saw a number of dealers selling Pakistani topaz that had obviously been irradiated. The coloration in many was somewhat irregular, which agrees with Knut's observations. If quartz was present in the matrix it was often quite black, similar to the well-known irradiated smoky quartz from Arkansas. In general, when compared to an untreated specimen, these things are usually pretty obvious.

Peter is correct in that there are no topaz-producing pegmatites that I am aware of around Nager. The small quartz at the base of Uwe's specimen, though dark, does not have the black coloration I saw in the irradiated specimens offered at the show. It could be natural, if miss-located.

9th Nov 2009 16:33 UTCIbrahim Jameel Expert

Uwe,

I would guess that the topaz has been irradiated. Zoning is typical of treated specimens, and very, very rare in natural ones from that area (i don't think I've ever seen a natural one, actually).

The dark color also hints at irradiation. That crystal is probably from somewhere in the Shigar Valley; naturally occurring ones are champagne colored at best.

Also, the smokey quartz points to irradiation. Smokey quartz is rather uncommon in that area, especially crystals so dark (that color is also typical of irradiated quartzes, like the Romanian "smokey quartz"/barite combos)

Having a smokey quartz and a zoned topaz on the same specimen would be a bit too unusual.... the best explanation is irradiation.

The other, very unlikely possibility is that the specimen actually came from Yunnan... sometimes Pakistani dealers buy Chinese material at the Sino/Paki border. In Peshawar I've seen Tongren cinnabars, Shimen Realgars, and Xianghualing fluorites all offered as being "from Gilgit..." Ironically, it's usually the Pakistanis who get ripped off in those deals with the Chinese... (a taste of their own medicine)

ibrahim

9th Nov 2009 18:22 UTCGerald Costlow

Something I've been meaning to ask you guys. Just where, in fact, do the dealers in that corner of the world find a radiation source to do this? Are we talking something that might be done in hospitals, or does it require a nuclear power station, or what? And would this be a back door illegal deal sort of thing on the part of the technicians, or something anyone could pay legally to have done?

9th Nov 2009 21:07 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

Any Cobalt 60 machine for cancer irradiation like Knut used would do the trick.

9th Nov 2009 21:15 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

Thanks all for the helpful info.

(Note that http://www.mindat.org/photo-209997.html is not the specimen I bought - only its colour is very similar to the bought one).

10th Nov 2009 11:09 UTCGerald Costlow

Huh. So I have a mental picture of a hospital cancer treatment ward, and technicians sneaking in bags or boxes of rocks to put on the slab and irradiate after hours. Considering the electric bill of running the machine and basic wear on something that costs more than a house, it's hard to believe the people running the hospital would consider this proper use of the equipment.

Heh. Or the tech could hand someone undergoing treatment a box and say, "Hold this while I step outside and turn on the machine."

10th Nov 2009 11:18 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

Food sterilizing plants might be a cheaper venue for irradiation?

10th Nov 2009 13:07 UTCMark Gottlieb

There are a lot of industrial uses for radiation: pipe weld radiographs, curing certain coatings on wire and cable, lead paint testing guns and I am sure that there are more. I imagine that radioactive sources are not as tightly regulated in that part of the world as they are here, and there could be all manner of stuff available from the former Soviet Union.

10th Nov 2009 17:05 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

I suspect that the dose to colour stones is much higher than for medical treatment and it wouldn't surprise me that that hospital authorities anywhere would consent to it in the hope of more income. However the intermittant supply of stones would more likely suggest tecnician's after hours activity.

13th Nov 2009 15:12 UTCSteve Hardinger 🌟 Expert

Cobalt-60 xray sources have, on occasion, shown up in junkyards.

6th Jan 2010 01:23 UTCPeter Lyckberg Expert

There is at least one laboratory specialized in this kind of mineral and gem rough irradiation treatment in Pakistan.

And no, it is not any hospital staff abusing the equipment.

already in late 1980s I saw such material from pakistan for sale by a former mineral dealer from former Yugoslavia and some Pakistanies.

Then at the 1993 Tucson show pale blue beryls from Shigar Valley and from Chumar Bakhoor showed up at the Executive Inn (with an american delaer) having been irradiated to a greenish yellow to very strong yellow unnatural color. The year after the same material was suddenly from another country!

6th Jan 2010 09:35 UTCKnut Eldjarn 🌟 Manager

Just to clarify an issue....

It is very common to sterilize medical and industrial equipment etc. by irradiation. This is usually done in industrial plants outside of hospitals and has nothing to do with equipment used for treatment of i.e. cancer patients. In Norway such a plant exist in a nuclear research facility outside of Oslo. When I mentioned an experiment with irradiation of Topaz, it was with a batch of vials to be used for a sterile in-vitro-diagnostics productions. By experience also clear glass vials turn faintly smoky in colour following this procedure.

I believe such services exist in most countries and they accept pre-packed goods to be sterilized. It would be very easy for any mineral vendor to deliver a batch of specimens to be sterilized in such a facility. But based on my experience the total amount of irradiation would have to be many times the amount used for ordinary sterilization of medical equipment, pharmaceutical goods etc. to deliver the dark smoky colour seen in topaz and quartz xl specimens. I believe specimens "enhanced" by such treatments must be very common also in the US i.e. with rock crystals irradiated to become smoky quartz. Many years ago I was told of truckloads of quartzes from Arkansas being treated in this way in the US.

Knut

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