AMMOLITE FOR SALE

What Is Ammolite?

Ammolite is a fossilized ammonite shell that exhibits unique iridescence. These fossils are renowned for their color play and variety of vibrant colors they flash. Ammonites are extinct cephalopods that looked similar to the extant nautilus but are more closely related to the octopus. As the ammonite shell fossilized, the minerals aragonite and calcite formed, which enhanced the iridescent qualities and thickens the ammolite shell to produce the color play that is stunning to behold.

An ammonite composed entirely of ammolite. Complete specimens of this quality are rare and prices run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Creative Commons License

Why Is Ammolite Iridescent?

Ammolite’s iridescence is due to the lamellar structure of its nacreous shell. This means that the ammolite shell is composed of many fine alternating parallel layers and structures. Lamellar structures are not only strong and durable, but often create an opalescent or iridescent effect, by a process referred to as structural coloration. Structural coloration is when there are minute variations in microscopic parallel structures on an object's (typically an animal’s shell, feathers, or wing cases) surface that break up the way light is refracted and reflected through the surface and to the viewer’s eye. In the case of nacreous shells, the plates of aragonite that form them are stacked at a thickness that is similar to a wavelength of visible light that it is reflecting. The thicker the layers, the more reds and greens are produced; the thinner the layers, the more blues and violets predominate. Reds and greens are the most commonly seen colors, owing to the greater fragility of the finer layers responsible for the blues.

Where Does Ammolite Come From?

The majority of the ammolite on the market today comes from two mining operations with one of them claiming to produce 90% of the mineral. Gem-quality ammolite is mined almost exclusively from the Late Cretaceous (~70 million years) aged Bearpaw Formation in Southwestern Alberta, Canada, near the St. Mary River. According to their marketing materials, the largest ammolite mining corporation, Korite, digs for ammolite with an environmentally conscious mindset . The depth needed to attain ammolite is not very deep, so when Korite is done exploring an area they will replace the dirt as it was excavated, layer by layer. They even go so far as to re-seed that patch of moved earth with native grass seed.

What Makes Ammolite So Rare?

Most of the ammolite in the world is pulled from the Bearpaw Formation in Alberta, Canada. Because of this scarce availability and the flashiness of the mineral, the ammolite has become a prized collector’s piece. In addition to the lack of global availability, the process in which ammolite is exhumed is limited by a multitude of factors. When mining for ammolite, drilling and coring to search for this mineral is out of the question. This process is not broad enough to catch many pockets of ammolite and large-scale excavation is required to locate the ammolite. It is not environmentally or economically feasible to search like this, so mineralogists suspect that ammolite mines don’t have much more of a future. If the mining process wasn’t narrow enough, the overall amount of ammolite collected is rapidly declining, contributing to ammolite mining’s uncertain future. Geologists are now finding deposits that are similar to ammolite in Utah, Morocco, and most abundantly, Madagascar. However, these specimens are of lower quality; the color and thickness of the iridescent portion of the shell is inadequate for cutting into gems.

Ammolite Fun Facts

The Blackfoot people of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Montana have used ammolite as religious talismans throughout history. They called them, “iniskim” which can be translated to “buffalo stone.” Many legends have spun out of the ammolite use in Blackfoot culture and was used in religious ceremonies long before ammolite received gemstone status in the late 1970’s.