All that you know about Emeralds?

Question

Where they're found, how is it mined, and what's it used for?

Answer 1

Green
pretty
birthstone for May

found - USA, south america, egypt, india, Zambia, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Russia.

mined - Gems are collected off the ground, sifted out of rivers, dug out of tunnels, and removed from the soil with various other mining methods.

uses - jewelry; spritual healing { It is a soft and gentle healer. It gently balances the energies of the spirit. This stone helps to knit back together that which has become undone. It fills in gaps and holes in the energy system as a whole, but centering it's focus on "spot of damage". }

Answer 2

Emerald (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) is a variety of the mineral beryl, colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes iron. It is highly prized as a gemstone and by weight is the most valuable gemstone in the world, although it is often made less so by inclusions, which all emeralds have to some degree. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5 on the 10 point Mohs scale of hardness. However, this Mohs rating can decrease, depending on the number and severity of inclusions in a particular stone.

Most emeralds are oiled as part of the post lapidary process. The amount of oil entering an emerald microfissure is roughly equivalent to the size of a period in print.

Emeralds come in many shades of green and bluish green. There is a wide spectrum of clarity, along with various numbers of inclusions. Most emeralds are highly included, so it is quite rare to find an emerald with only minor inclusions. Because of the usual inclusions, the toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor.

Emeralds in antiquity were mined by the Egyptians and in Austria as well as Swat in northern Pakistan
rare type of emerald known as a trapiche emerald is occasionally found in the mines of Colombia. A trapiche emerald exhibits a "star" pattern; it has raylike spokes of dark carbon impurities that give the emerald a six-pointed radial pattern. It is named for the trapiche, a grinding wheel used to process sugarcane in the region
You can find more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald