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ViewHigh-quality natural crystals, natural minerals, and natural gemstones have much higher ornamental and collectible value, while lower-quality ones are often treated to enhance their appearance.
The main treatment processes include acid washing, resin filling, heat coloring, and cutting, as well as others such as dyeing, bleaching, heat treatment, fracture filling, laser drilling, diffusion treatment, irradiation, oil impregnation, coating, and recrystallization.
The treatment process mainly depends on whether the mineral is suitable, the cost of the treatment, and the potential to enhance the mineral's value. The primary purpose is to improve appearance, increase durability, and enhance market value.
However, since minerals/gemstones that require additional processing are usually mass-produced, their collectible value is much lower than high-quality natural minerals/gemstones.
Since minerals are found in the earth, their surfaces (and even interiors) are often accompanied by metal oxides and other impurities. Acid washing removes impurities from the surface or even the interior of the mineral using strong acids.
If it's just a short acid wash that cleans the surface impurities, the mineral can still be considered natural since the acid washing does not alter the interior, only cleaning the surface.
If the purpose is to remove internal impurities (which is common for minerals with internal impurities), deep and long-term acid washing means the mineral is no longer considered natural, even though it looks similar to natural stones after washing, it is not rare and lacks collectible value.
Commonly applied tominerals with many surface impurities like turquoise, tourmaline, agate, or minerals requiring transparency like aquamarine, amazonite, and crystals.
How to Identify if a Mineral Has Been Acid Washed
Minerals that have undergone deep acid washing typically lose their original fibrous traces and instead show a network or granular pattern throughout the surface. In natural light, it is hard to distinguish between natural and acid-washed minerals, but under strong light, you can see the network formed by tiny particles in acid-washed minerals.
For example, the comparison of amazonite in the image:
Heat coloring involves heating the mineral in a specific temperature and gas environment, causing surface color changes without affecting the mineral's internal physical properties.
Main Purpose:
Heat coloring itself does not pose any health risks unless chemical substances are added during the process to achieve a certain color.
Commonly applied tominerals with vibrant colors that don't require much transparency, such as amber, turquoise, and rhodochrosite.
How to Identify if a Mineral Has Been Heat Colored
Minerals with unnaturally vibrant surface colors are often treated.
Since heat coloring changes the surface color, the mineral typically appears less translucent under light.
For example, the comparison of amber in the image:
Heat treatmentis the process of heating gemstones to high temperatures (usually between several hundred to thousands of degrees Celsius), altering their internal chemical structure or physical properties to improve color, transparency, or eliminate impurities.
Since heat treatment is costly, it is often applied to high-quality gemstones and must involve materials that can withstand high temperatures, such as:Sapphiresandrubies.
Heat treatment is similar to iron smelting, where increasing the temperature removes impurities and increases the purity of elements. Essentially, it remains the same substance.
Dyeing involves soaking gemstones or jade in dye, allowing the dye to penetrate and change the stone's color. This is commonly used for gemstones with uneven or light colors.
Dyeing can produce almost any desired color, but the result is not considered a natural stone.
How to Identify if a Mineral Is Dyed
Since dyed colors are fuel-based, dyed minerals often have an unnatural 'dyed' texture. This is commonly found in cheaper stones.
For example, the comparison of dyed blue tiger's eye in the image, although blue tiger's eye reflects blue light, most of it is black:
Irradiation involves exposing gemstones to radiation to alter their chemical structure, thereby changing their color. This process does not involve heat but relies on the physical effects of radiation.
Main Purpose:
Irradiation is not common because it requires high-quality gemstones and demanding processes. It is mainly seen in citrine when it significantly increases product value.
Resin filling involves injecting transparent resin, glass, or polymers into the internal cracks or voids of gemstones or jade to improve appearance and stabilize structure.
Since most minerals have internal cracks, resin filling is necessary before turning them into other products to reinforce stability and prevent breakage during processing. This is common in minerals with lower hardness.
As long as the resin is non-toxic, resin filling is safe for humans. Transparent resin is low-cost, so non-toxic transparent resin is commonly used for filling.
If the cracks are small and few, the stone is still considered natural after filling, as most minerals are prone to breakage during processing.
If a large amount of resin is used, it indicates that the mineral has large cracks, or it is even made from reconstituted fragments, in which case it is not considered a natural stone.
Main Purpose:
Commonly applied tominerals with poor stability or high mining costs, such as aquamarine and jade.
How to Identify if a Mineral Is Resin Filled
It is difficult to detect resin filling with the naked eye, but under UV light, resin-filled minerals exhibit fluorescent reactions, showing blue fluorescence.
For example, the comparison of jade in the image, with the left showing excessive resin filling:
The above are common mineral processing techniques and identification methods. Other techniques are less common due to cost and technical requirements.
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