The tourmaline is a real miracle of colour. It not only comes in green, red, blue, yellow, colourless and black, but also as a multi-coloured or colour-changing gemstone or as a cat's eye. There are, furthermore, innumerable mixtures of colour, in all nuances and depths, and some very unusual tones too. However, until recently, there were no pure yellows in the rich colour range of the 'gemstone of the rainbow', as this stone is also known. Most of the yellow tourmalines found thus far had a slight tinge of brown. But the tourmaline not only has many different colours; it is also good for a surprise now and then, as for example at the beginning of the 1990s, when some fantastic blue-green to turquoise tourmalines suddenly arrived on the market from a find in Paraiba, Brazil.
Meanwhile, this colourful gemstone has taken the world by surprise again with another new variety, and this time it is a yellow one: in southern East Africa, in Malawi, a gemstone deposit with some wonderful yellow tourmalines was discovered in the autumn of 2000. The fresh, springlike yellow of these tourmalines is clear and pure and has just a very fine hint of green. Under the trade name 'canary', the new tourmaline variety has now begun to circulate.
