Types of Tourmaline Gemstones and Their Healing Properties Among all the different types of tourmaline that you will find in the market, one pattern that repeats itself is that every tourmaline variety has a highly similar crystal structure but it widely differs in its chemical composition. What is a tourmaline? In simple words, tourmaline is nothing but a group of silicate minerals. This special gemstone is known to have the broadest color ranges among all the different families of gemstones.