Gemstone industry in Greenland gemstone ruby. The native inhabitants continued to assist the European explorers with their ruby exploration, leading them to some half dozen locations, spread out for over a hundred miles along the southwest shores of Greenland, known as the Kitaa Coast. Ruby and pink sapphire are the red and pink varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminum-oxide mineral Al2O3. The pink/red colour is formed in corundum by adding the element chromium to its crystal structure. Spectroscopy of rubies from the Aappaluttoq occurrence in Greenland confirm the presence of chromium as well as showing absorption in the UV region indicating high Fe
Garnet been called "hessonite" from the Greek meaning inferior. Grossular is found in contact metamorphosed limestones with vesuvianite, diopside, wollastonite and wernerite. Grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania has been called tsavorite. Tsavorite was first described in the 1960s in the area of Kenya, from which the gem takes its name. Uvarovite is a calcium chromium garnet with the formula CaCr(SiO). This is a rather rare garnet, bright green in color, usually found as small crystals associated with chromite in peridotite, serpentinite, and kimberlites. It is found in crystalline marbles and schists in the Ural mountains of Russia and Outokumpu, Finland.