It is estimated that only about 100,000 tons of gold have been mined during all of recorded history.
The word garnet comes from the Latin word for pomegranate.
Rarest gem: Painite, discovered in Burma. Fewer than 10 specimens exist in the world.
From 330 B.C. to A.D. 1237, most of the world’s emeralds came from Cleopatra’s mine in Egypt.
