karenleah15
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Ceylon
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Kaleigh
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bar01
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Well actually I believe it was called Ceylon under British rule, but is called Sri Lanka now- so yes it is a place where it was mined- but it may also be used to decribe a certain appearance of a sapphire which may come from somewhere else!
Sri Lanka was considered among the top three sources of sapphires 1) Kashmir 2) Burma 3) Sri Lanka 4) Everywhere else.
Recently there have been newer sources, which seem to be producing very high quality “Sri Lanka like” sapphires - like Madagascar.
Many experts will tell you the origin does not mean anything. They will say you can get horrible looking sapphires from Burma and wonderful from Australia. Further that you can get sapphires, which have attributes traditionally attributed to one origin from some place else - that a sapphire that looks like it is from Kashmir but comes from Africa or something like that.
Now what about those characteristics that have been "historically attributed" to certain origins - As described by one expert they have been as follows:
Kashmir
The hue ranges from violet blue to blue
The tone ranges from medium to medium dark.
Grey color is minimum
They have a powdery velvety “sleepy” blue appearance
Dark extinction areas are at a minimum.
High Color Saturation
Burma
The hue ranges from violet blue to blue. The best have an electric blue color
Tone is medium dark, but some are lighter.
Gray color is minimum.
The color tends to be more evenly distributed than Kashmir and Sri Lankan sapphires/
There tend to be more dark extinction areas than Kashmir or Sri Lanka, but fewer than Thailand and Australia.
The color is highly saturated.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Tone range from violetish blue to blue
Tone ranges from medium-dark to very light.
The hue is often masked by Gray. The less gray the better/
The color is often unevenly distributed. The more even the color the better.
Normally they have more brilliance and fewer dark extinction areas than other sapphires. This is mainly due to the lighter color.
The color is usually less saturated than that of Kashmir or Burma. The more saturation the better.
The two top experts in the field have more to say.
Richard #1
Richard #2
Determining origin can be a tricky thing - that requires a trained expert gemolgist. I will always recommend that any expensive sapphire or gem, especially one being sold, and perhaps priced, as being from a particular region - have an expert independent lab evaluation and appraisal (Richard #3) obtained by the buyer.
Sri Lanka was considered among the top three sources of sapphires 1) Kashmir 2) Burma 3) Sri Lanka 4) Everywhere else.
Recently there have been newer sources, which seem to be producing very high quality “Sri Lanka like” sapphires - like Madagascar.
Many experts will tell you the origin does not mean anything. They will say you can get horrible looking sapphires from Burma and wonderful from Australia. Further that you can get sapphires, which have attributes traditionally attributed to one origin from some place else - that a sapphire that looks like it is from Kashmir but comes from Africa or something like that.
Now what about those characteristics that have been "historically attributed" to certain origins - As described by one expert they have been as follows:
Kashmir
The hue ranges from violet blue to blue
The tone ranges from medium to medium dark.
Grey color is minimum
They have a powdery velvety “sleepy” blue appearance
Dark extinction areas are at a minimum.
High Color Saturation
Burma
The hue ranges from violet blue to blue. The best have an electric blue color
Tone is medium dark, but some are lighter.
Gray color is minimum.
The color tends to be more evenly distributed than Kashmir and Sri Lankan sapphires/
There tend to be more dark extinction areas than Kashmir or Sri Lanka, but fewer than Thailand and Australia.
The color is highly saturated.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Tone range from violetish blue to blue
Tone ranges from medium-dark to very light.
The hue is often masked by Gray. The less gray the better/
The color is often unevenly distributed. The more even the color the better.
Normally they have more brilliance and fewer dark extinction areas than other sapphires. This is mainly due to the lighter color.
The color is usually less saturated than that of Kashmir or Burma. The more saturation the better.
The two top experts in the field have more to say.
Richard #1
Richard #2
Determining origin can be a tricky thing - that requires a trained expert gemolgist. I will always recommend that any expensive sapphire or gem, especially one being sold, and perhaps priced, as being from a particular region - have an expert independent lab evaluation and appraisal (Richard #3) obtained by the buyer.
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Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka is an island nation at the tip of India famous for the fabulous gems found there. It produces very fine sapphires along with a profusion of other wonderful stones. Rare gems like sinhalite and taffeite come only or mainly from that source.
The term "Ceylon" is also applied to a certain color of Sri Lankan blue sapphire, sometimes popularly described as "cornflower blue." The name is sometimes used to denote that color no matter what the stone''s source may be. It''s also applied to any gem whose source is Ceylon, i.e., "Ceylon spinel," "Ceylon alexandrite," etc. But many blue sapphires mined in Tanzania, Africa, and another island nation, Madagascar (aka the Malagasy Republic) off the coast of Africa, resemble sapphires from Ceylon. Many Malagasy sapphires are sold as coming from Ceylon.
Some geologists believe the sapphire deposits in the three countries were formed long ago at the same time in the same place, and share some similar characteristics. They speculate a geological formation called the "Pan-African Belt," where the sapphires formed, crossed through the very ancient continent of Gondwandaland. Due to plate tectonics the three countries split apart and over millions of years drifted to their present locations.
Richard M.
The term "Ceylon" is also applied to a certain color of Sri Lankan blue sapphire, sometimes popularly described as "cornflower blue." The name is sometimes used to denote that color no matter what the stone''s source may be. It''s also applied to any gem whose source is Ceylon, i.e., "Ceylon spinel," "Ceylon alexandrite," etc. But many blue sapphires mined in Tanzania, Africa, and another island nation, Madagascar (aka the Malagasy Republic) off the coast of Africa, resemble sapphires from Ceylon. Many Malagasy sapphires are sold as coming from Ceylon.
Some geologists believe the sapphire deposits in the three countries were formed long ago at the same time in the same place, and share some similar characteristics. They speculate a geological formation called the "Pan-African Belt," where the sapphires formed, crossed through the very ancient continent of Gondwandaland. Due to plate tectonics the three countries split apart and over millions of years drifted to their present locations.
Richard M.
mogok
Shiny_Rock
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Hello Karen,
Excellent question! You cannot believe how many times I asked myself this type of questions in the past few years...
The point is that traders are traditionally using a type based terminology regarding to gems. "Ceylon" has become a kind of brand name... Most gems traders are not scientists nor gemologists and in gem markets most of the time:
"If it look and smell like a rose, then it is a rose..."
Now in the early days of gemology the gemstone origins were limited to a few areas and only the finest specimens were bring to European markets like Switzerland. Gemologists have found then several ways to separate these stones as per their origin using some scientific ways. But now we are at a point where I feel that the origin determination like it was given before is reaching a point where it does not make anymore sense.
I explain: Gems are known now from many different places: rubies from Burma (Mogok, Mong Hsu, Namya), Thailand, Vietnam, Sri lanka, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Groenland,... and for blue sapphires the choice is even larger: Khasmir, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Laos, Australia, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, malawi, Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, Congo, USA, Colombia, even France... To be sure that a stone is coming from one place or an other one is a very difficult task. For many reasons:
First: Gems coming from the same country can have very different characteristics.
Second: A country can host many areas producing gems. These areas can produce gems of different types.
Third: Different countries can produce gems very similar with each other.
Fourth: If before most of the time only top quality gems of large size were send to labs for origin determination, now lower quality gems of smaller size are regularly send... especially lower quality gems which appareance has been improved using some treatment. these treatment has modified the visual aspect of the gem inclusions, its color zoning,...
Finally as I said before there are now so many countries producing gems that to get samples from each gem locality is a near impossible task for a lab... so I dont even speak about a simple gemologist!
So now things are getting incredibly more difficult. And in many cases labs are doing mistakes, honnest mistakes as regarding to gemstone origin it is nearly impossible to know everything but these are still mistakes.
Now the problem is that "final customers" and many dealers look at origin as a quality factor most of the time. A sapphire "from Kashmir" will be possibly sold for 2 time more than a sapphire from Madagascar of equivalent beauty. This is nonsense...
You can imagine now that when we issue a report with "Origin: Madagascar" for a beautiful gem that has a nice "Kashmir type appareance", the customer might be not very happy and this customer might bring the stone to another lab that has may be different data and might issue a report with "Origin: Kashmir", then the customer usually will just through away the "Origin: Madagascar" report and sell the stone with the "Origin: Khasmir". He might know that the stone was from Madagascar but then he dont care as he can get twice more for the gem... Finally the report from the "nice lab" will be used and your will fill the trashbin. And if he was believing that the stone was from Khasmir then he will not loose one occasion to say that your lab is a bad one with stupid gemologist not able to recognise a "real Khasmir"...
This are the reasons I dont like origin as laboratory director even if i like personally to know where the stone I buy is from.
Personally I''m more and more favorable for the trade to stop "origin determination" the way it is now as with all the mistakes the labs are doing we are subject to permanent jokes from the traders...
As people are using origin as a quality factor whatever lab say, why not just produce "gemstone quality reports"? Then a nice sapphire will be a nice sapphire with a third party opinion that is is indeed a "fine sapphire"... There will be less likely for big mistakes to be done and everything will be better for everybody! Dont you think so?
Just my 3 cents current thinking...
All the best,
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There's allot of wisedom on this page already! Nothing to add, of course.
This is what I would think there is to this name for my own use:
Ceylon blue... a cheerful blue color, without much violet and with no gray in it, somewhere between just strong enough not to be washed out by strong daylight and medium-dark blue. This concoction may or may not come from Ceylon. Between color and geography, to me color comes first. You'd be amazed what could receive the label 'Ceylon sapphire' based only on geographical origin or on nothing at all!
Could be wrong here, but I would venture to guess that there is allot more blue sapphire comming from SriLanka than there is 'Ceylon' sapphire from the same place. And I would say the same for the other trade names describing both color and origin. If given a choice, origin matters for a collection of minerals and color for jewelry - both are dear to me, for different purposes, as noted.
This is what I would think there is to this name for my own use:
Ceylon blue... a cheerful blue color, without much violet and with no gray in it, somewhere between just strong enough not to be washed out by strong daylight and medium-dark blue. This concoction may or may not come from Ceylon. Between color and geography, to me color comes first. You'd be amazed what could receive the label 'Ceylon sapphire' based only on geographical origin or on nothing at all!
Could be wrong here, but I would venture to guess that there is allot more blue sapphire comming from SriLanka than there is 'Ceylon' sapphire from the same place. And I would say the same for the other trade names describing both color and origin. If given a choice, origin matters for a collection of minerals and color for jewelry - both are dear to me, for different purposes, as noted.
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Indeed Ceylon is an origin but one "type" of color is often called "Ceylon" that''s why I regularly buy some "Ceylon" that is indeed from Madagascar (worth the same to me).
You can have "good" origin determination based on color (I mean 90-95% correlation with AIGS origin opinion) but you will sometimes fail.
Typical "Ceylon blue" is blue to slightly violetish blue, not metalic like Madagascar and Tanzania gems, gems often have strong color zoning and color instensity varies a lot, even if many are quite light in color (I like these personnaly even if they are quite cheap). Most are heated.
Color is rarely grayish and almost never vivid, saturation usually medium strong to strong.
Now don''t really care about origin, either a gem is good or not, but I understand the "Ceylon blue" brand for what it is : a nice color (medium dark, medium strong, very slightkly violetish) very usual in Ceylon.
You can have "good" origin determination based on color (I mean 90-95% correlation with AIGS origin opinion) but you will sometimes fail.
Typical "Ceylon blue" is blue to slightly violetish blue, not metalic like Madagascar and Tanzania gems, gems often have strong color zoning and color instensity varies a lot, even if many are quite light in color (I like these personnaly even if they are quite cheap). Most are heated.
Color is rarely grayish and almost never vivid, saturation usually medium strong to strong.
Now don''t really care about origin, either a gem is good or not, but I understand the "Ceylon blue" brand for what it is : a nice color (medium dark, medium strong, very slightkly violetish) very usual in Ceylon.
karenleah15
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Richard Sherwood
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mogok
Shiny_Rock
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Hi Richard,
I would love to have your certitude... But may be I''m still lacking of experience in gemology so I find the things more difficult that you seems to think. It is a fact that 6 years ago I was only a tourist guide speacialised in Asia with a vague interest for gems...
4 to 6 times? Well Ok thats possible and in this case that''s just even more silly if the 2 stones share the same beauty and their only difference is the name on the lab cert. Now this point is probably the reason why you have never seen a Khasmir sapphire from Madagascar... Just think about the difference it makes... This point is the heart of the problem with origin determanination as people (and some labs) are thinking "quality type" and most labs (including AIGS) are trying to do the thing more scientifically and give a "geographic origin which should not be look at a quality factor".
May be we are wrong to go in this direction and decide to call a "Kashmir looking gem" a "Kashmir"?
I''ve seen some Khasmir looking blue sapphires from Mogok in Burma (from Thurein Thaung mine), Pailin and heard about such stones from Madagascar. In order to be really sure about this fact I went to see all the Khasmir stone I could last year at the Basel gem show, and well they were very much alike. Were they really from Kashmir? Well I''ve some Khasmir sample, but they look like "fish tank" stones... The problem is that in the absence of a diagnostic feature like a pargasite inclusion for Kashmir or its typical chemical fingerprint (as examples), many Kashmir look like a nice blue sapphire with minutes particles, like those you can find in some other places.
I''ve heard that as an example in Andranondambo area (Madagascar) that at Tiramene mine (30km north of Andranondambo) several stones very Khasmir like were produced few years ago. The fact is that the geology of the place is very similar in many aspect with the geology of the Khasmir mines: The stones are found in Skarns... I was very sad not to be able to visit Tiramene when I went to Andranondambo, so I could not get 100% relaible sample from the area, but well after travelling to most of Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Madgascar, Kenya and Tanzania ruby and sapphire mining areas in the last 4 months and collected many samples, I lost a lot of my certitudes and confidence regarding to my ability to give a really conclusive origin opinion: I''m currently in the process to study all the samples I''ve bring back and well it is not easy.
You see I went on this trip as there are very few information available on rubies and sapphires from the places were most of them are produced nowadays: I wanted to find a good study or book on Ilakaka, Tunduru, Songea, Andilamena sapphires... There are no.
I wanted to get more data to compare Mong shu rubies with Vietnam rubies and also with Sri lanka rubies that also as the stones from the marble of Mong Hsu, Vietnam, Nepal and Afghanistan have this blue color zoning...
The more data I get and the more i find that my certitude is that I should not have certitudes.
My problem is mainly that the more I learn, the more I realise how easy I could have done a mistake before and probably I did already several...
Anyway I love to study origin determination. It is somewhere my passion for the last 5 years... But the more I learn the more I find the subject complicated and dangerous... As an example yesterday I got at the lab 8 small stones for origin determination. All rubies, all heated at high temperature with flux. All their inclusions were melted, and they were full of glassy fingerprints. I know that people in the trade call these stones "Burma" as they are from the "Mong Hsu borax heated" type but well the stones could also be from Afghanistan, Nepal or Vietnam... So I could write for all the stone Burma as 90% of these stones are from Burma... In this case I will just be wrong 10% of the time... Well I just dont like that much to work like that.
May be I''m too dogmatic and perfectionist...
Well, for me a nice stone is a nice stone, and it should be evaluated for what it looks not for what is written on the cert going with, even if the cert is coming from the Lab I work for...
All the best,
I would love to have your certitude... But may be I''m still lacking of experience in gemology so I find the things more difficult that you seems to think. It is a fact that 6 years ago I was only a tourist guide speacialised in Asia with a vague interest for gems...
4 to 6 times? Well Ok thats possible and in this case that''s just even more silly if the 2 stones share the same beauty and their only difference is the name on the lab cert. Now this point is probably the reason why you have never seen a Khasmir sapphire from Madagascar... Just think about the difference it makes... This point is the heart of the problem with origin determanination as people (and some labs) are thinking "quality type" and most labs (including AIGS) are trying to do the thing more scientifically and give a "geographic origin which should not be look at a quality factor".
May be we are wrong to go in this direction and decide to call a "Kashmir looking gem" a "Kashmir"?
I''ve seen some Khasmir looking blue sapphires from Mogok in Burma (from Thurein Thaung mine), Pailin and heard about such stones from Madagascar. In order to be really sure about this fact I went to see all the Khasmir stone I could last year at the Basel gem show, and well they were very much alike. Were they really from Kashmir? Well I''ve some Khasmir sample, but they look like "fish tank" stones... The problem is that in the absence of a diagnostic feature like a pargasite inclusion for Kashmir or its typical chemical fingerprint (as examples), many Kashmir look like a nice blue sapphire with minutes particles, like those you can find in some other places.
I''ve heard that as an example in Andranondambo area (Madagascar) that at Tiramene mine (30km north of Andranondambo) several stones very Khasmir like were produced few years ago. The fact is that the geology of the place is very similar in many aspect with the geology of the Khasmir mines: The stones are found in Skarns... I was very sad not to be able to visit Tiramene when I went to Andranondambo, so I could not get 100% relaible sample from the area, but well after travelling to most of Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Madgascar, Kenya and Tanzania ruby and sapphire mining areas in the last 4 months and collected many samples, I lost a lot of my certitudes and confidence regarding to my ability to give a really conclusive origin opinion: I''m currently in the process to study all the samples I''ve bring back and well it is not easy.
You see I went on this trip as there are very few information available on rubies and sapphires from the places were most of them are produced nowadays: I wanted to find a good study or book on Ilakaka, Tunduru, Songea, Andilamena sapphires... There are no.
I wanted to get more data to compare Mong shu rubies with Vietnam rubies and also with Sri lanka rubies that also as the stones from the marble of Mong Hsu, Vietnam, Nepal and Afghanistan have this blue color zoning...
The more data I get and the more i find that my certitude is that I should not have certitudes.
My problem is mainly that the more I learn, the more I realise how easy I could have done a mistake before and probably I did already several...
Anyway I love to study origin determination. It is somewhere my passion for the last 5 years... But the more I learn the more I find the subject complicated and dangerous... As an example yesterday I got at the lab 8 small stones for origin determination. All rubies, all heated at high temperature with flux. All their inclusions were melted, and they were full of glassy fingerprints. I know that people in the trade call these stones "Burma" as they are from the "Mong Hsu borax heated" type but well the stones could also be from Afghanistan, Nepal or Vietnam... So I could write for all the stone Burma as 90% of these stones are from Burma... In this case I will just be wrong 10% of the time... Well I just dont like that much to work like that.
May be I''m too dogmatic and perfectionist...
Well, for me a nice stone is a nice stone, and it should be evaluated for what it looks not for what is written on the cert going with, even if the cert is coming from the Lab I work for...
All the best,
Richard Sherwood
Ideal_Rock
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Truthfully, in the case of heavily heat treated material of similar appearance and gemological characteristics, it doesn't really make a whole hell of a lot of difference (financially) if you're wrong anyway.
Not meaning to sound gemologically sacriligious of course, but the truth is that all those rubies trade pretty much at the same price level anyway. If you're wrong, nobody's going to bother suing you.
It's in the case of fine gems, particular untreated, where country of origin begins to play a major role. At that level you're talking about Kashmir sapphires that can be worth twice as much as Burmas which can be worth two or three times as much as Ceylons or Madagascars.
That's where you need to be certain of your designations. Thankfully, that's also an area that is more easily distinguished gemologically (the finer, unheated gems).
There's no need to toss out the determination of these categories because of the "muddy waters" of the lower quality heated categories. In those qualities it doesn't make much difference financially. In the higher qualities it makes a huge difference.
maxspinel
Shiny_Rock
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I thought it is the guideline of the industry not to use trade names unless the origin of the source is certain. Therefore, even if a stone''s color looks like it might be from Ceylon, but if it is not certain, then for the sake of not to mislead the consumer, the stone should not be described as "Ceylon".
mogok
Shiny_Rock
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Hi Richard,
Well you know I had several discussions about all these aspect with some gemologists from leading labs in the US and in Europe, the thing is that at AIGS in Bangkok we are closer to the source and as a result the stones that pass in our labs are globally lower in quality compared to the "miss Burma" or "miss Kashmir" that some bigger and older lab see more often than us. As we are located in the center of the ruby and sapphire hub, we are also in the front line when stones from new mines or a new treatments arrive in the market. As an example I''ve already seen at AIGS lab several rubies that I believe are from Andilamena new ruby deposit which was found in march 2005 and that I visited in July and september 2005... Some of these stones were heated with lead glass, other with Beryllium and other just with flux additives. And we did not saw only one of these stones but around 10 of them.
An other reason about the difficulties we meet is that our services are much cheaper than the services from most western labs, so people there before to send a stone think twice, but here they dont really have this problem.
People here bring us the stones for different purposes: The most common are the following: To check if their supplier is telling them lies, to get a paper in order to be able to sell a stone at a premium price, and in some cases just to know what we will say about this new material or this new treatment...
During the last 3 years I spend here at the lab, I''ve learn that overconfidence and certitudes are very dangerous here.
Anyway,
Life as a gemologist here is a fascinating challenge and we have surprises everyday,
All the best,
Well you know I had several discussions about all these aspect with some gemologists from leading labs in the US and in Europe, the thing is that at AIGS in Bangkok we are closer to the source and as a result the stones that pass in our labs are globally lower in quality compared to the "miss Burma" or "miss Kashmir" that some bigger and older lab see more often than us. As we are located in the center of the ruby and sapphire hub, we are also in the front line when stones from new mines or a new treatments arrive in the market. As an example I''ve already seen at AIGS lab several rubies that I believe are from Andilamena new ruby deposit which was found in march 2005 and that I visited in July and september 2005... Some of these stones were heated with lead glass, other with Beryllium and other just with flux additives. And we did not saw only one of these stones but around 10 of them.
An other reason about the difficulties we meet is that our services are much cheaper than the services from most western labs, so people there before to send a stone think twice, but here they dont really have this problem.
People here bring us the stones for different purposes: The most common are the following: To check if their supplier is telling them lies, to get a paper in order to be able to sell a stone at a premium price, and in some cases just to know what we will say about this new material or this new treatment...
During the last 3 years I spend here at the lab, I''ve learn that overconfidence and certitudes are very dangerous here.
Anyway,
Life as a gemologist here is a fascinating challenge and we have surprises everyday,
All the best,
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- Feb 17, 2004
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You''ll note I used the qualifier "sometimes." I was describing practices in the real world. Vincent, Valeria and colorchange all said the same thing. If you go into the marketplace you''ll hear the term "Ceylon blue" used widely to describe stones that may or may not be from Ceylon.
Labs on the other hand take different views on the matter. Note the exchanges above between Vincent and Richard Sherwood. Origin reports are disputed and so are "typical" gem colors. Mileage varies! As for "industry guidelines" I''m still looking for some I can rely on 100% after all these years! It seems as if every lab, school and expert has different opinions they put forth as revealed truth.
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I personally use origin as geographical, but it takes me lots of time to explain a customer that this gem is as good as another though it is from Madagascar and not Ceylon, so of course I like to be able to tell it''s from Ceylon and don''t have to spend so much time.
What I meant is that when I buy a "Ceylon" blue, I already have my opinion on origin based on macroscopic observation (color zoning, visible inclusions, color) ; most usually it matches the lab, and, based on color only it''s already good.
Now "Ceylon blue" is a quite well know "brand" used as this in the gem market, one should not expect to be told the true origin when buying a gem.
What I meant is that when I buy a "Ceylon" blue, I already have my opinion on origin based on macroscopic observation (color zoning, visible inclusions, color) ; most usually it matches the lab, and, based on color only it''s already good.
Now "Ceylon blue" is a quite well know "brand" used as this in the gem market, one should not expect to be told the true origin when buying a gem.
Richard Sherwood
Ideal_Rock
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mogok
Shiny_Rock
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Thanks Richard for these kind words...
Participating in this forum is useful for me to improve my knowledge about the gem world and also my English: Two domains I still have many things to learn!
Not long time ago one of my collegues here was trying to dissuade me from writting anything using my "bastard-English"... I was prefering "French-glish" but well may be for that guy "french" and "bastard" were synonyms... LOL
All the best,
Participating in this forum is useful for me to improve my knowledge about the gem world and also my English: Two domains I still have many things to learn!
Not long time ago one of my collegues here was trying to dissuade me from writting anything using my "bastard-English"... I was prefering "French-glish" but well may be for that guy "french" and "bastard" were synonyms... LOL
All the best,
mogok
Shiny_Rock
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Hi Ed,
Well currently after the visit I had in ruby and sapphire producing countries during the last 5 months in the Asia and African region, the main producers of ruby and sapphire that are present in the Bangkok and Chanthaburi are probably for rubies: 1)Burma and 2)Madagascar others countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Afghanistan are far far behind. and for sapphire: 1)Madagascar, then Tanzania and Sri Lanka, followed probably by Burma, Thailand, Australia, China, then others... But it is difficult to compare really. Just my 0.2$ idea after 5 years scouting these areas.
I dont really estimate now the production of the central and western Hymalaya, but I''m preparing my next summer field trip there to Pakistan, Afghansitan and Tadjikistan. The production in north Pakistan (Hunza) was told me to be near zero (even before the terrible earthquake that has for sure now send Hunza production to zero for a while), Afghanistan is (Jagdalek) difficult to estimate but is is for sure nothing compared to the activity in Mong Hsu or Mogok...
Anyway, I''ve finally completed my field trip report which is a kind of update on the production of Ruby and sapphire in the African and Asian area (except the western and central hymalaya).
You can visit these pages and follow my steps from the following link:
Ruby and sapphire African and Asian fieldtrip report.
You can also acces to it from my personal website.
Have a good visit,
All the best,
karenleah15
Shiny_Rock
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- Jun 19, 2005
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- 217
I got it! It is BEAUTIFUL! It looks to me more of a deep blue/purple. Not purple purple just a hint of purple. I love it!!!!
Now the sad part. It came fedex which was fine but....the stone is loose! UGH! So now it is being sent back. Dont you hate that? They are paying for the shipping and repair. It must not have been set just right or something. Who knows. As soon as it is back (they say 5 working days) you will get some pics!!!
It really is pretty. And huge (to me at least) a 1.55 carat cushion cut. I love it. I was so sad to send it back. But the sooner it goes back the sooner it comes back.
Now the sad part. It came fedex which was fine but....the stone is loose! UGH! So now it is being sent back. Dont you hate that? They are paying for the shipping and repair. It must not have been set just right or something. Who knows. As soon as it is back (they say 5 working days) you will get some pics!!!
It really is pretty. And huge (to me at least) a 1.55 carat cushion cut. I love it. I was so sad to send it back. But the sooner it goes back the sooner it comes back.
xiaoemily
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2005
- Messages
- 8
- Status
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