Emeralds including Golden Beryl and aquamarine is the most famous in the family of beryl. But emerald is by no means the rarest of the beryls. That distinction belongs to bixbite – the red beryl. All the members of the beryl family are beryllium aluminum cyclosilicate by chemical composition.

Pure beryl is actually colorless. The various colors occur from the presence of impurities. Presence of chromium and vanadium forms Emerald. Presence of iron forms aquamarine and gold beryl. Presence of manganese forms morganite and bixbite. Goshenite is white or colorless beryl.

Bixbite was first discovered in 1904 in the Thomas Mountains in western Utah, USA. It was named after Maynard Bixby (1853-1935), an American mineralogist.

Concentration of red beryl was very small and the material did not possess gem quality. Gem-quality material was found in 1958 in the Wah Wah mountains of Beaver County, in southwestern Utah.

Prices for the top quality natural red beryl can be as high as $10,000 per carat for faceted stones. Most red beryl specimens weigh less than a carat. Red beryl is very rare and is found only in very few locations like Wah Wah mountains-Utah, Paramount Canyon, and Round mountain.

Red beryl has been known to be confused with pezzottaite also known as raspberry beryl or “rasp beryl”, a red gemstone that has been found in Madagascar and now Afghanistan. But the cut gems of the two varieties can be easily distinguished since they have different refractive indices.