An artificial lapidary material often deceptively sold as natural. Proven to be created from powdered limestone set in resin and coloured by artificial colouring pigments. See Gems and Gemology, Winter 2002 for full report.
It is similar to
fordite in appearance and has possibly been created as a 'synthetic' fordite, which is quite amusing as fordite itself was an artificial material, albeit one that was supposedly created by a 'lucky accident'.