Capistrano Mining Company

"Your direct source for Sapphire Gravel Paydirt from the Sapphire Mines of Montana, 

Benitoite Ore from the Benitoite Gem Mine in San Benito County, CA,

along with U.S. Mined Gemstones and Fine Mineral Specimens from the United States and Worldwide."

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 Benitoite is one of the rarest gemstones on earth. Gemstone quality Benitoite is only found one place, a small area in San Benito County, CA.

Benitoite fluoresces a beautiful blue color under shortwave ultra violet light. If it does not fluoresce this bright blue color, then it is not benitoite.

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I cannot state this enough, be careful when purchasing any benitoite.

Beware of the large Benitoite Gems being sold from India, they are fakes!

Due to it's rarity and steep increases in price within the last few years for good quality benitoite gemstones, there are some dealers trying to sell other blue gemstones as benitoite. Be especially cautious when buying benitoite from Thailand and other countries outside of the U.S., or "certified" from these countries. If the stones purchased do turn out to be benitoite, then they rarely live up to their "certification". If you look at the photos of their stones, the photos are always color enhanced, the stones are lesser quality than listed, and the cut of the stones, well let's just say you'll get what you pay for. Remember that anyone can make up a "certificate" on a computer and say that a gemstone is certified. 

Just always do your research and "Let  the Buyer Beware".

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Heated, Orange Benitoite Gemstone
.44cts., 5.4 mm x 4.0 mm
Benitoite Gem Mine
San Benito County, California

This is an amazing benitoite gemstone. 
A must have to the Rare gem collectors. 

This beautiful oval cut gem is about as clean as they come!
This is the largest heated benitoite I have had in a long while.
It is VVS, which is quite rare since the heating process almost always causes issues.
The color is a beautiful peachy orange to pinkish orange depending on the lighting.
This gemstone is even more amazing in the sunlight.



Yes, I said did say Orange in the description.
The most popular color for benitoite is that deep blue with violet color that benitoite is known for.
The benitoite blue coloring is 100% natural and any attempts to heat treat these blue benitoite just destroys the gemstones.
The rarest natural color for benitoite is actually colorless or some call them white.
These stones lack the popular blue color, but can look very much like diamonds.
However these crystals are very rare and most often form as very small tabular crystals.
What few people are aware of is that, ONLY these rare colorless benitoite can be heat treated.
When properly heat treated, they will never turn blue,
but instead they turn beautiful shades of Peach to Orange.
Very few stones are ever heated and as you can imagine most stones are destroyed during this process,
leaving only very few to ever hit the market in any given year.

This process for heating colorless benitoite is a proprietary secret,
and very few people know the actual process. 
For this reason and the scarcity of the colorless gems, there will never be any commercial production of these orange colored benitoite.
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Please note that full purchase price is usually put on customs forms for international shipping. 

If this does not work for you, please contact me before making your purchase. 

International buyers, please note that if you purchase the least expensive shipping,
 your shipment cannot be tracked.