The word “cuprian” means “copper bearing” or “colored by copper”. For example extremely rare and expensive Paraiba Tourmaline is colored by copper. Copper causes the gem to exhibit a range of colors from pink and red thru chrome green and peacock green-blue. Even schiller sunstone and most golden sunstones are also copper bearing.

By far the rarest and most valuable color is Blue and Green. Typically Blue gems have always some green in it. The rule of thumb is “more vivid the color is, more expensive it is per carat”. Some pure red gems are also very valuable, namely the what we call “neon red” or “spinel red” are two of the most desirable and expensive colors. There are a number of other types of red, orange and pink (including a very rare “padparadscha” type). I urge you to read our Oregon Sunstone Buying Guide on ravenstein-germany.com to get more up to date information. Scroll all the way down on the homepage to find the guides.

The hardness of Oregon Sunstone ranges from 6.5 to 7.2 on Moh´s scale. Hardness of a single crystal can vary based on it´s orientation (axis). Oregon Sunstone is similar in hardness to / or harder than gems like Tanzanite, Peridot, Amethyst, Tourmaline or Garnet. Therefore suitable for jewelry wear. Exceptional gems from Pana mine are especially suitable for high-class jewelry.

YES! Absolutely! Luck is a wonderful thing but hard work goes hand in hand with it. If you register as a fee digger with us, you will be given a rare chance to work directly with miners, side by side and sort thru the very same pre-processed ore we screen ourselves to find these gems. There are green, blue-teal or red gems in up to 1000 ct+! So schedule the date, prepare for the trip and visit us at PANA Mine!

Each mine has its own rules and fee digging prices so do your own online research and contact the mine owners in advance.

Our prices are strictly based on volume. If you buy one or two pieces you will pay substantially more (per gram) than if you buy 1 kilo bag or more. We simply guarantee best price-to-quality ratio!

I keep my 7 European cuttters busy with our own projects but sometimes we are able to cut smaller batches of up to few dozens of few hundreds of gems. We will not facet badly included, fractured or badly shaped rough. Contact us first with details about your rough. We typically charge between $ 7 and $ 9 per finished carat. All of our cutting is of top quality. All gems are cut by certified, highly skilled master cutters by hand. Typical turnaround time is between 2 and 3 months.

Based on my years of experience the yield ranges anywhere between 3% and 30%. Nevertheless, our own long-term average yield remains at around 18%. In other words a 20 gram (100 carat) piece of rough can yield an 18 carat finished faceted stone. This is a fairly low number compared to for example gems from alluvial deposits like Garnets, Spinel or Sapphire. Well shaped to ideally shaped alluvial pebbles will offer much higher yield, typically between 30% and 45%+.

No! Most inexperienced people have a very unreasonable expectations regarding this issue. Even a fairly clean piece of rough may not yield a finished stone. There are way too many variables at play so rather keep your expectations low then be pleasantly surprised with the outcome, than the other way around. If a beautiful faceted gemstones is what you desire for your collection, jewelry or investment, we offer hundreds of them to choose from. So rather then purchasing a piece of rough and then taking a risk and cutting it, you can purchase a top-quality US or EU cut PANA Mine Oregon Sunstone from our extensive stock. We offer best price-to-quality ratio, guaranteed!