AfricaPress-Tanzania: AN Italian tanzanite businessman who has been a frontline promoter of the gems and its discoverer has passed on in his home country after contracting coronavirus.
Mr Rafael Zancanella, whose family has huge experience in the gemological field in Africa went on to publish a book; ‘TANZANITE.
All About One of The Most Fascinating Gemstones’, illustrating the person that discovered Tanzanite back in 1967, the late Mr Jumanne Ngoma.
Zancanella (75) who has also been a senator of Trentino, an autonomous province of Italy, in the country’s far north near the Alps Mountains is survived by a wife and three children.
One of them, Mr Valerio, is the one who compiled all the family history and experience in gemological field and authored the book.
Mr Valerio confirmed the death of his father and also shared some clips of the Italian media that covered the story of his demise.
He said the book that was authored in 2000 was again published in Italian in 2004. He said that his father was born on 21st April, 1945.
Speaking of the death of the Italian businessman, his other partner, Mr Hussein Gonga, said he was saddened by the news amid devastating reports of thousands of people dying in Italy and other countries.
Mr Gonga said the late Mr Zancanella and his family did a lot in marketing Tanzania as the only source of tanzanite and that it was until the book was out that many Europeans came to believe that the blue and violet variety of the mineral zoisite has only Tanzania as its home.
