The present study applied LA–ICP-MS on gem-quality emeralds from the most important sources (Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Russia, Zambia and Zimbabwe). It revealed that emeralds from Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia and Madagascar have a relatively lower lithium content (⁷Li < 200 ppmw) compared to emeralds from other places (⁷Li > 250 ppmw). Alkali element contents as well as scandium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, zinc and gallium can further help us in obtaining accurate origin information for these emeralds. UV-Vis spectroscopy can aid in the separation of emeralds from Colombia and Afghanistan from these obtained from the other sources as the latter present pronounced iron-related bands. Intense Type-II water vibrations are observed in the infrared spectra of emeralds from Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as in some samples from Afghanistan and Ethiopia, which contain higher alkali contents. A band at 2818 cm⁻¹, supposedly attributed to chlorine, was observed only in emeralds from Colombia and Afghanistan. Samples with medium to high alkalis from Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe can also be separated from the others by Raman spectroscopy based on the lower or equal relative intensity of the Type I water band at around 3608 cm⁻¹ compared to the Type II water band at around 3598 cm⁻¹ band (with some samples from Afghanistan, Brazil and Russia presenting equal relative intensities).

The present study applied Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) on a large number of natural and cultured pearls from saltwater and freshwater environments, which revealed that freshwater (natural and cultured) pearls contain relatively higher quantities of manganese (Mn) and barium (Ba) and lower sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg) and strontium (Sr) than saltwater (natural and cultured) pearls. A few correlations between the host animal’s species and chemical elements were found; some samples from Pinctada maxima (P. maxima) are the only studied saltwater samples with ⁵⁵Mn >20 ppmw, while some P. radiata are the only studied saltwater samples with ²⁴Mg 4.5 ppmw. X-ray luminescence reactions of the studied samples has confirmed a correlation between its yellow-green intensity and manganese content in aragonite, where the higher Mn²⁺ content, the more intense the yellow-green luminescence becomes. Luminescence intensity in some cases is lower even if manganese increases, either because of pigments or because of manganese self-quenching. X-ray luminescence can be applied in most cases to separate saltwater from freshwater samples; only samples with low manganese content (⁵⁵Mn <50 ppmw) might be challenging to identify. One of the studied natural freshwater pearls contained vaterite sections which react by turning orange under X-ray due to a different coordination of Mn²⁺ in vaterite than that in aragonite.