Historical Background for discovery:
In March 2002, a gemstone was presented to Dr. A. Peretti for identification through two dealers active in Madagascar (MJ3 Inc., New York), Mr. Marc Jobin and Steve Jaquith.

It was reported that a major find was made of a mineral in Madagascar, 20 kilometers south of the village of Mandrosonoro, 140 km southwest of Antsirabe, central Madagascar.

This part of Madagascar is well known in the world of geology and mineralogy for its rare minerals and rocks
(Pezzotta, F. (2001): Madagascar, a mineral and gemstone paradise. Ed. Lapis International LLC, East Hampton, CT, U.S.A. Extralapis English 1, 100pp.)

The material had previously made an appearance at the Tucson show in February 2003, where it was recognized as a mineral of unusual gemological properties not referenced in world literature with:

UNIAXIAL (B): ω 1.615 - 1.619, ε 1.607 - 1.610
	PLEOCHROISM: orange red and purple-violet Image as seen through a calcite dichroscope
DENSITY: 3.09 - 3.11

The GRS project was to test whether this is indeed a new mineral. The identification of this new mineral turned into a more complicated matter and it ended up as an international cooperation project between various scientists and organizations, namely:

• Frank C. Hawthorne & Mark A. Cooper, Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Canada,
• Adolf Peretti, GRS Gemresearch Swisslab Ltd., Lucerne, Switzerland,
• William B. Simmons, Geology & Geophysics, University of New Orleans, U.S.A.,
• Thomas Armbruster, Lab. Chem. Miner. Kristallogr., University of Bern, Switzerland,
• George R. Rossman, Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, U.S.A.,
• Detlef Günther, Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry, ETH Hönggerberg, Zürich, Switzerland,
• Brendan M. Laurs, Gemological Institute of America, U.S.A.,
• Bernard Grobéty, Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

The above authors filed an application with a proposal for a new mineral name to The Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Application No. 2003-022.
http://www.geo.vu.nl/users/ima-cnmmn/

Subsequently IMA approved the first researchers identifying the new mineral as:
Hawthorne F.C., Cooper M.A., Peretti A., Simmons W.B., Armbruster T., Rossman G.R., Günther D., Laurs B.M., Grobéty B. (2003a) Check-list for new mineral proposals: Pezzottaite. Proposal submitted to the International Mineralogical Association, 8 pp..

The first article about Pezzottaite by an extended(*) work team is published in Gems & Gemmology's Winter Issue.

* Mr. Falster, senior research technologist, University of New Orleans, Louisiana.
* Ms. Quinn, staff gemologist, GIA Gem Laboratory, Carlsbad.
* Mr. McClure, director of Identification Services, GIA Gem Laboratory, Carlsbad.

Ref.: Brendan M. Laurs, William B. (Skip) Simmons, George R. Rossman, Elizabeth P. Quinn, Shane F. McClure, Adolf Peretti, Thomas Armbruster, Frank C. Hawthorne, Alexander U. Falster, Detlef Günther, Mark A. Cooper, and Bernard Grobéty (2003): PEZZOTTAITE FROM AMBATOVITA, MADAGASCAR: A NEW GEM MINERAL. Gems&Gemology, Vol 39, No. 4, pp. 284-301.

Further publications will appear in the scientific literature as detailed below.

1. Hawthorne F.C., Cooper M.A., Simmons W.B., Falster A.U., Laurs B.M., Armbruster T., Rossman G.R., Peretti A., Günther D., Grobéty B. (in preparation): Pezzottaite,
   Cs(Be₂Li)Al₂Si₆O₁₈, a spectacular new mineral related to the beryl group, from Madagascar. Mineralogical Record.
   
   
2. The challenge of finding a new mineral species (2004). Contributions to Gemmology No.3.(in preparation).