Emerald the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, is the goddess Meenakshi, whose idol is traditionally thought to be made of emerald. Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (BeAl(SiO)) colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale. Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor. Emerald is a cyclosilicate. The word "emerald" is derived (via and ), from Vulgar Latin: "esmaralda"/"esmaraldus", a variant of Latin "smaragdus", which originated in (smaragdos; "green gem"). Emeralds, like all colored
Geology of Zambia crystalline basement rock. These rocks are generally impermeable, but store water in 10 to 15 meter thick weathered regolith and fractures. Zambia has extensive natural resources, most famously the copper ore of the Roan Group, which gave rise to the Copperbelt region. Until the rapid decline in copper prices in the mid-1970s, copper mining formed the backbone of the economy of Zambia. Demand has picked up for copper, along with secondary production of cobalt. The country has deposits of iron, zinc, lead and tin, as well as small scale gemstone mining from basement rock. The Ndola area has emerald, aquamarine,