Dear Jim;
I'll respond to you, personally, but, I want this to be here. 1st, there are darn few minerals that are harder the quartz (7); BUT, I can assure you that NO garnet would be! They max out at 7; so do tourmalines. The MORE likely candidate , which YOU threw out as UNlikely, would be from the new pegmatites they are exposing, which would make your piece a beryl; color is right. You'll SOON find that the area you were TOLD something comes from or is sold from has LITTLE to do w/where the specimen ACTUALLY comes from; that area, as well as in Brazil, is rife w/people hiding where something came from. Usually bcs that piece is stolen property or from a "private" unregistered claim, to hide from rebels &/or g'vnt. Thailand, as well as Burma, Cambodia, Laos, & Vietnam, are ALL areas in turmoil & getting the truth, from ANYONE, is a chancey prospect. Can you e-ml me a picture of it?
Your friend, Steve
PS bear in mind, that a hardness test, done wrong, can mess EVERYTHING up!

From steve - October 02, 2008 at 08:23:57
Email: stevegarzain[ ]aol.com

Message: 67038