“Spinel comes in almost all colors of the rainbow and a wide range of hues. Driving the demand is their brilliance, color and price point.
Gray spinels were one of the obvious new trends at the Tucson shows this year. It was not hard to find exhibitors showing off their gray spinel, and everyone who had them commented on how quickly they were selling. The story is remarkable in that the colored stone market has accepted a gemstone that by definition has an unsaturated color—a gray color, no less. Most gray spinel has a minor blue or violet secondary color component. It is relatively rare to find a spinel with a perfectly neutral gray color. These stones have the most value, which increases as the depth of the gray increases.