"Silverite" Update---Is It Sillimanite? One Seller Says So!

White "Silverite" - Sillimanite?

I have written about a gemstone that is almost exclusively sold on Etsy, called "Silverite".  Sellers in India say it's a natural gemstone, and until now, that's all they would say.  I asked some wholesalers about "Silverite" and never got a really straight answer, other than to tell me what it's NOT----I heard it's "definitely NOT sapphire" and "definitely NOT coated".  Yet jewelry designers on Etsy (and elsewhere online) have described it as "coated sapphire", "opalescent quartz", and just a lot of other descriptions that they must have made up, since the actual wholesalers state otherwise.

Anyway, I bought some of this silverite over the past year and had it tested, and every piece that I had tested (from different sellers) turned out to be just glass.  One strand of silverite that I had tested was "coated glass", with some sort of mystic coating on it.

Silverite - Could Be Sillimanite

Tonight I heard from someone who pointed me to a new seller on Etsy who has Silverite.  This person told me that silverite is actually a trade name for "Sillimanite", which is a natural gemstone.  I looked at the listings, and YES, this seller states in the description that this is actually "natural Sillimanite".  HERE is a link to one of their listings.  As of March of 2017, the term "silverite" is not a registered trade name, and no gemologists have even heard of it (except for the ones I contacted about it---they heard of it from me) and it's not written about anywhere--not on mineral websites, the GIA, gemstone forums, nowhere.  The term "silverite" was registered at one point for a coating method, but it's a "dead" trademark and it had nothing to do with a gemstone name anyway. 

I haven't bought any of this new seller's silverite yet, and so I haven't had it tested, so I can't say for sure that this is a natural gemstone.  However, it's interesting to see a wholesaler offering silverite and describing it as Sillimanite.

I hope this is the case!  This seller seems reputable and has other nice gemstones, so hopefully this actually IS a gemstone (Sillimanite)!

Sillimanite is a gem that is closely related to Kyanite and Andalusite.  It's a hard gemstone, and a large amount of Sillimanite has been recently mined in India.  It's considered a collector's gem, and can be quite expensive.  Sometimes, sillimanite is dyed to look like precious rubies, emeralds and sapphires.  HERE is some good info regarding sillimanite.

And once again----no matter what "silverite" is, it is definitely NOT a sapphire, or corrundum; it is not a coated quartz; it is not a pearlescent coated opal, or any other type of precious gemstone.

If I get some of this Silverite, I will test it and let you know!