Burgundy Tourmaline Identification Guide

What Burgundy Tourmaline Looks Like

Burgundy tourmaline is a trade name for deep wine-red to red-purple tourmaline, essentially a dark rubellite (elbaite) colored by manganese. The color resembles burgundy wine—richer and darker than typical pink tourmaline. Crystals are transparent to translucent with a vitreous luster, and show distinct pleochroism (the depth/tone of red shifts when viewed along versus across the crystal).

Crystal habit / form

Tourmaline forms elongated prisms with a rounded-triangular cross-section and strong lengthwise striations—the defining habit. Terminations often differ at each end. Cut burgundy tourmaline is faceted when clean; included material is cut as cabochons or beads.

Step-by-Step Field ID Checklist

1. Confirm the color—deep, slightly purplish wine-red.
2. Check cross-section—rounded triangle confirms tourmaline.
3. Look for striations along the prism faces.
4. Test pleochroism—rotate the stone; the red darkens/lightens by viewing direction.
5. Test hardness. Mohs ~7–7.5; scratches glass and quartz.
6. Check fracture/cleavage—conchoidal to uneven, no easy cleavage.

Key Diagnostic Tests

• Mohs hardness: ~7–7.5. Scratches glass; resists a knife.
• Streak: White.
• Cleavage: Poor/indistinct—separates it from garnet (no cleavage but different habit) and from cleavable red minerals.
• Pleochroism: Strong—diagnostic for tourmaline.
• Density: ~3.0–3.2 g/cm³.
• Piezo/pyroelectric: May attract dust when warmed or rubbed.

Common Look-Alikes and How to Tell Them Apart

• Rubellite / red tourmaline: Burgundy is a darker, more purplish grade of the same species—no physical difference, only color depth.
• Almandine/rhodolite garnet: Garnets are isometric (no pleochroism, no prism striations) and often higher density; tourmaline's strong pleochroism and triangular striated prisms separate them.
• Ruby/red spinel: Higher hardness (corundum 9), different crystal habit, and ruby shows red fluorescence; spinel is singly refractive (no pleochroism).
• Garnet-colored glass: Conchoidal fracture, bubbles, no pleochroism, no triangular prisms.
• Pyrope garnet: No pleochroism; check with a dichroscope—tourmaline shows two tones, garnet one.

Where It Is Found

Burgundy/rubellite tourmaline forms in granitic pegmatites. Major sources include Brazil, Madagascar, Nigeria, Mozambique, Afghanistan/Pakistan, and the United States (California, Maine). Clean material is faceted; the rest is cut into cabochons and beads marketed under names like burgundy, cranberry, or raspberry tourmaline.