Why synthetic malachite matters
Given its largely ornamental usage, the presence of synthetic malachite on the market is not particularly earth shattering for most people in the gem trade, but for those who have a passion for all things of nature the distinction between natural and synthetic is very important.
Earlier reports in the literature
The first report of synthetic malachite in the gemmological literature was from Balitsky in 1987 (Balitsky et al., 1987), Breeding (Breeding, 2010) then described the separation by LA-ICP-MS in 2010 and late last year Bublikova (Bublikova, 2019) describes the internal structures of synthetic malachite.
The specimen examined
The ICA | GemLab team recently examined a large specimen of Russian synthetic malachite obtained in Tucson approximately 15 years ago and while the surface structures observed might not be entirely useful in identifying the specimen as a synthetic, the LA-ICP-MS chemistry determined the presence of elevated Ni (Figure 2), clearly, in common with the results published by Breeding and Shen, showing that the material was indeed of synthetic origin.
Figure 1
An example of laser spots showing the location of the 21 spots where LA-ICP-MS analysis was conducted on different area of synthetic malachite
Figure 2
An example of laser spots showing the location of the 21 spots where LA-ICP-MS analysis was conducted on different area of synthetic malachite.
References
Balitsky, V. S., Bublikova, T. M., Sorokina, S. L., Balitskaya, L. V., and Shteinberg, A. S., 1987, Man-made jewel- ry malachite: Gems and Gemology, v. 23, no. 3, p. 152-157.
Breeding, M., Shen, A., 2010, LA-ICP-MS Analysis as a Tool for Separating Natural and Synthetic Malachite, News from Research: http://www.gia.edu/researchresources/news-from-research, Gemological Institute of America.
Bublikova, T. M., Balitskya, V. S., Khanina, D. A., Nekrasova, A. N., Setkovaa, T. V. , 2019, Features of the Inter- nal Structure of a Synthetic Malachite: Moscow University Geology Bulletin, v. 74, no. 1, p. 73-80.
