Before 2005, only three serendibites were thought to be in existence, all from Sri Lanka. The first two were discovered by rare stone specialist D. P. Gunasekera and purchased by the late Prof. E. J. Gübelin of Switzerland for around $14,000.00 per carat.
More recently, facet quality serendibite was also discovered in the Mogok area of Northern Myanmar. Although the Sri Lankan stones were an attractive greenish or violetish blue, the dark black Burmese stones were still fetching prices of hundreds $ per ct. when they first appeared.
Serendibite boasts an unusually complex formula consisting of calcium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, boron and oxygen. It may be confused with sapphirine and zoisite, but can be identified as serendibite on the basis of refractive indices, twinning, and spectroscopic features.
