Labrador is the mainland portion of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, occupying a large area of northeastern Canada bounded by Quebec on the west and the Atlantic on the east. The region is significant in gemmology principally as the type locality of labradorite, the calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar variety whose iridescent display gave its name and whose first systematic description came from material collected by Moravian missionaries on the Labrador coast in the late eighteenth century.

The discovery and the type locality

Labradorite was first reported in the European mineralogical literature in 1770, following its collection by Moravian missionaries on the islands of the Labrador coast, particularly Paul Island and the surrounding Tabor Island and Nain area. The Moravian Brethren had established missions among the Inuit population from 1771 onward, and specimens of the iridescent stone were sent to Europe, where they reached the Royal Society in London and the mineralogical communities of Germany and France. The German mineralogist Abraham Werner formally described the species and named it after the locality.

The Tabor Island and Nain area remains the classic Labrador labradorite locality. Material from this region typically displays strong blue, blue-green and gold schiller against a dark grey to black base, and is the standard against which other localities are compared. Working of the deposit has continued, with material principally directed to lapidary use rather than industrial.

Other gem materials

Beyond labradorite, Labrador hosts a range of mineral occurrences relevant to mineralogy if less so to mainstream gem trade. Anorthosite-hosted labradorite is the dominant gem material. Various pegmatite occurrences in the Grenville Province produce specimen-grade beryl, garnet, tourmaline and other species, but cuttable material in commercial quantities is rare. The Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in northern Labrador, opened in 2005, is significant industrially but produces no gem material.

The wider Canadian context

Labrador is part of the broader Canadian gem geology that also includes the Yellowknife and Ekati diamond mining regions of the Northwest Territories, the Cape Breton amethyst occurrences of Nova Scotia, and the various pegmatite and skarn occurrences of Ontario and Quebec. Among these, Labrador's significance is primarily historical and lapidary rather than commercially important to the international gem trade, but the labradorite that bears its name is sufficiently distinctive that the locality retains its place in the gemmological reference literature.

For the trade, Labrador-origin labradorite typically commands a small premium over similar material from Madagascar, Finland and the broader Russian and Ukrainian sources, particularly when the schiller is of exceptional quality and the cabochon orientation has been chosen to maximise display.