Baringo Sapphire
Natural Pink Sapphire – Lake Baringo, Kenya
This very rare, natural, not heat treated, pink sapphire is from the Lake Baringo region, the Great Rift Valley, in Kenya. Mining is mostly surface collection carried out by local villagers searching after big rains. Most of the material that is found is very small in size, suitable only for cutting small calibrated stones. Larger stones over one carat are extremely rare. In many parts of the world this material would be considered ruby, and a very few of the stones are red enough to be classifies thusly, but generally the material cuts out in varying shades of pink, from bubble gum to intense fuchsia.