Bumblebee Jasper is one of my very favorite minerals. Personally I prefer the rough over the finished jewelry or cabochons. But what exactly is bumblebee jasper?
Firstly, the beautiful material comes from Mount Papandayan in Indonesia, a 150 mile drive southeast from Jakarta. It is rare stuff on the world market.
Now for the surprise. Bumblebee jasper is not actually a jasper at all. That is just how it was marketed when it hit the market a few years. It actually contains no quartz at all. Bumblebee jasper is actually an agate. A beautiful combination of volcanic matter, anhydrite, hematite, orpiment, sulfur, angelite, arsenic. The material is soft, with a Mohs hardness of 5 or below. The porous rock is easily cut and polished.