Tiffany Stone Properties, Facts and Photos

What is Tiffany Stone?

Tiffany Stone is a rare material composed of several different minerals. For this reason, it's a rock, not a mineral.

Tiffany Stone is a mineralised nodule found in just one location in the U.S.A., the Sevier Desert in Western Utah.

The nodules were once impregnated by groundwater rich in natural minerals. These impurities are the reason for the stone's striking colour.

Tiffany Stone is composed of quartz, fluorite, dolomite, rhodonite, beryllium, and manganese oxides. The black colour comes from impurities of manganese oxides, while white, yellow and pink come mainly from beryllium. Blue and purple come from fluorite.  

Tiffany Stone is sometimes referred to as bertrandite, which is not correct. Bertrandite is a mineral in its own right but is present in Tiffany Stone. It's a primary source of a highly sought-after chemical element called beryllium.  

Most Tiffany stone is crushed to extract even the smallest amount of this sought-after metal.

Tiffany Stone grades 4 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which means it's quite soft. It's widely used for cabochons because of its striking colour and markings.

The Name Tiffany Stone

Despite extensive research, I cannot find any factual information explaining how the name Tiffany Stone came about.

Many articles claim it comes from Tiffany Glass, not only because of the name, but also because the stone often features similar colours. Other articles I read claimed Tiffany Stone was named after the daughter of the person who discovered it. 

Wherever the name came from, as Tiffany Stone gained popularity and started being widely photographed and written about, the name would have become too difficult to change.

Tiffany Stone is known by several names, including Ice Cream Opal and Opalised Fluorite. From a scientific perspective, Opalised Fluorite is a more accurate description of what it is.

Where is Tiffany Stone Found?

The primary deposit in Utah where Tiffany Stone is found is the Spor Mountain Mining District. The area is no longer accessible to the public, and Tiffany Stone hasn't been mined for many years.

The Spor Mountain Mining District is the world’s premier producer of beryllium. Spor Mountain is also known for its abundance of minerals, which include the incredibly rare red beryl, hematite, and topaz.     

With most Tiffany Stone now being crushed, very little collectable material becomes available. After searching extensively for some time, I recently found a small quantity of what appeared to be very nice polished stones. Sadly, I returned them because they had been varnished or lacquered. This spoiled the stone's natural texture and was probably done to make a lower-grade stone look more superior.  

Opalised fluorite from Turkey and China is often missold as Tiffany Stone. Although they can have a similar appearance, they're not the same material.

Tiffany Stone is now rare and highly sought-after. Unless it's from Western Utah, it's not Tiffany Stone. 

It's worth remembering the location where it's found has been closed for many years.      

Article Picture

The Tiffany Stone at the top of our article is courtesy of James St.John. It's clickable and redirects to the original photo.

Pop-up photos: Fluorite - Stone Mania. Rhodonite and topaz, - Courtesy of Stan Celestian.