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Tanzanian Umba Sapphires & Rubies

Orange, Peach, Red, Pink, Blue, Purple, Green, Gray, Greige, Yellow, Bi-Color, Color-Changing...Soft pastel tones to vibrant rich hues

Umba Sapphire known for its vast array of fancy colors unique to this Tanzanian valley. All natural and untreated.

NAFCO Gems affiliation with African Umba Sapphires and rubies dates back to the early 1960's when George Papaeliopoulos, a farmer / miner living in Africa, discovered a sapphire (corundum) deposit near the Umba River in Tanzania.

Mr. Papaeliopoulos was looking to sell the 'tons' of Umba sapphire and ruby rough he was mining when he met Eugene Naftule. The Naftule family was so interested in this 'new find' that they made an exclusive agreement to purchase ALL of the quality rough being mined by George and began cutting in their Geneva, Switzerland and Shannon, Ireland lapidary facilities.The Naftule family was the only and largest supplier of Umba Sapphires world-wide. Mining continued until 1972 when it was nationalized

Today because of our family's foresight and investment in some of the most rare, unique and untreated sapphires-- the Umba Sapphire-- NAFCO continues to regularly cut and still has the largest quantity of material today.

 



Not finding what you are looking for or have a special request? Since Our inventory of wholesale loose gemstones is vast we have much more then what you see online. Please give us a call at 800-528-4490 or Click Here to Contact Us