Greed, Corruption and Danger: A Tarnished Afghan Gem Trade – by Mujib Mashal (New York Times – June 5, 2016)

http://www.nytimes.com/

KABUL, Afghanistan — The local people called the militia’s takeover of the giant lapis mine in northeastern Badakhshan Province a white coup — easy and bloodless. Perhaps, but the seizure has become a lesson in how the lack of accountability and rule of law in Afghanistan can turn bounty into ruin.

Riding waves of excitement after a 2010 report by the United States military that Afghanistan’s mineral wealth could be worth as much as $1 trillion, the Lajwardeen Mining Company won a 15-year contract in 2013 to extract lapis lazuli in Badakhshan. For thousands of years, Afghanistan has been one of the chief sources of lapis lazuli, a prized blue gemstone associated with love and purity and admired by poets as well as jewelers.

Valued at about $125 million a year in 2014, the lapis trade had the potential to be worth at least double that, and Lajwardeen, owned by an Afghan family in the import-export business for three generations, saw a great opportunity.

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The Blood Rubies of Montepuez [Mozambique]- by Estaio Valoi (Foreign Policy – May 3, 2016)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

Some 40 percent of the world’s rubies lie in one mining concession in Mozambique, where a troubling pattern of violence and death contradicts the claim of “responsibly sourced.”

MONTEPUEZ, Mozambique — Mila Kunis embodies just the kind of woman that Gemfields, the world’s leading supplier of rare colored gemstones, wishes to entice: young, sensual, enigmatic — and affluent.

The 32-year-old Hollywood actress, best known for her roles in Black Swan and Oz the Great and Powerful, is the star of Gemfields’s promotional short film, showcasing jewelry made by top designers with stones mined at Montepuez, the world’s largest ruby concession and one of Gemfields’s latest acquisitions.

Located in northern Mozambique, Montepuez is thought to hold 40 percent of the world’s known supply of a precious stone that, since antiquity, has been associated with wealth and royalty.

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From Muzo emerald mine, Colombia’s ‘green fire’ goes global – by Richard Emblin (The City Paper – March 29, 2016)

http://thecitypaperbogota.com/

Changing an industry with a sometimes dark past

Green was the color of the day, from the stripes on the Bell helicopter, to the pilot’s gloves and headset, to the precious stones glittering within the mountains below.

Just a 40-minute chopper ride northeast of Bogotá, the famed Muzo emerald mines of Colombia are undergoing a profound physical and cultural transformation. In the central department of Boyacá, a North American company is formalizing a once outlaw industry still tarnished by its violent past.

Until his death from cancer in April 2013, Victor Carranza was the undisputed czar of Colombia’s “green fire.” Over the decades, illegal actors in the nation’s armed conflict vied to overtake the lucrative business, including left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries.

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(Gemological Institute of America – February 12, 2016)

http://www.gia.edu/

When it comes to selling colored stones, a retailer’s supply-chain knowledge has tangible benefits at the counter – or wherever the point of sale happens to be.

That’s what Andy Lucas, GIA’s education manager of field gemology, and Dr. Tao Hsu, technical editor and research specialist for Gems & Gemology, told local GIA alumni and Women’s Jewelry Association members at GIA’s Carlsbad campus on Jan. 13. Lucas and Hsu have traveled the world together to discover and document what happens as a gemstone travels from the mine to the market.

The allure of colored stones has not changed much over the centuries, Lucas said, so retailers need to share the romance and adventure. “The people who are more knowledgeable about the story are better at making customers feel comfortable, at gaining their trust and at piquing their interest,” he said.

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Pardieu Brings Ruby Rush to Life with Stories, Updates from Madagascar – by Jaime Kautsky (Gemological Institute of America – March 10, 2016)

http://www.gia.edu/

A gem “fingerprint.” That’s what Vincent Pardieu, senior manager of field gemology for GIA in Bangkok, and his six-person team are looking for as they traverse the globe – and log hours in the lab – finding, analyzing and cataloging colored stones for GIA’s Colored Stone Identification and Origin Report reference collection.

So when Pardieu’s team learned of a newly discovered ruby deposit in northeast Madagascar in July 2015, they arranged a field expedition and set to work investigating and documenting the rubies of the island nation’s Zahamena National Park.

On Nov. 4, just a month after their trip, Pardieu and field assistant Manuel Diaz visited GIA’s Carlsbad campus to share their findings − and sometimes harrowing experiences − with students and staff.

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Bad Blood the Color of Rubies – by Eric Konigsberg (New York Magazine – February 11, 2016)

http://nymag.com/

A Jewelry Feud, Set In Jaipur and on Madison Avenue

On a recent morning when Siddharth Kasliwal came downstairs, his mother dropped a sheaf of papers on the table in front of him. “Potential brides,” he said later. “There were some party pictures, clippings about their families. My mother is getting impatient. There are 15 to 20 serious candidates, and already in my life I’ve met seven or eight of the girls.”

Siddharth, or Sid to his friends, is 31: handsome, cultured, deferential, occasionally preening — at once humbled and entitled by his privileged birthright as a ninth-generation co-owner of the Gem Palace, India’s most glamorous jewelry business. The Gem Palace was a sleepy favorite, before he was born, of Jackie Kennedy, Marella Agnelli, and Lord Mountbatten, among others.

Now there are satellite boutiques around the world, including in Istanbul, Tokyo, and New York. His father, Munnu, and an uncle, Sanjay, were the public faces of the business for decades.

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The Exploitation Fueling Madagascar’​s Sapphire Trade (World Crunch.com/Le Monde – February 9, 2016)

http://www.worldcrunch.com/

ILAKAKA — The rush first started in October. With nothing but muscle power, some 100 holes, 10 to 20 meters deep, were dug in the red, dry ground. No one really knows who found the first sapphire in the locality of Ankiliabo, a bush area in southern Madagascar. But they all came running to this new El Dorado, which is accessible with a simple zebu and cart or on foot.

Among the fortune seekers is 27-year-old Jean-Louis Damlinbesoa, who traveled 15 hours in a bush taxi to come and start digging. “I need to find 30 to 50 grams of sapphire to finally be able to build a concrete house for my wife and two children,” he says. “It’s a hard job, but do I have a choice?”

With temperatures reaching 37°C (98.6°F), about 1,500 people, all unlicensed, are busy exploiting the opportunity. The miners descend into a one-meter-large hole thanks to a pulley rope uncoiling around a big tree branch. “Once at the bottom, I scratch horizontally on a maximum of four meters. After that, it’s too dangerous,” says Christian Bienvenu, who is wearing a headlamp and has dust encrusted on his face.

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Legal, illegal Mozambique rubies and legal Angola diamonds in the spotlight – by Keith Campbell (MiningWeekly.com – January 29, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

Mozambique mining company Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada has made public its concerns about unfair competition by illegal miners.

The company operates a ruby and corundum mine at Namanhumbir, in the Montepuez district, which lies in the southern region of Cabo Delgado Province. It is 75%-owned by British (London Stock Exchange Aim-listed) enterprise Gemfields and 25% by local business Mwiriti Limitada.

Montepuez Ruby Mining chairperson Asghar Fakir told the Notícias newspaper that illegal mining was still a common occurrence in the area, despite a small decline.

“The phenomenon is not yet fully under control,” he said.

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Mining Company Strives to Spark Dazzling Demand for Gemstones – by Alexandra Wexler (Wall Street Journal – January 20, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

LUFWANYAMA, Zambia—A little-known mining company is modernizing the rough-and-tumble colored gemstone trade, hoping to generate diamond-caliber demand for its emeralds and rubies.

At the world’s largest emerald mine near Zambia’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gemfields PLC is pulling millions of carats of the shimmering stones out of the ground every month.

In November, a few dozen workers armed with shovels and giant screws chiseled at an open pit of banded black, red and white rock at the sprawling Kagem mine. Fragments were sent to “the washroom,” where some 50 workers wearing overalls crouched over conveyor belts, using metal hooks to find emerald traces.

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World’s biggest blue sapphire found in Sri Lanka – by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan (Ceylon Today – January 3, 2016)

https://www.ceylontoday.lk/

News broke in Sri Lanka on New Year’s Day, of the discovery of the world’s largest known Blue Star Sapphire valued at a stunning US$ 100 million and hitting the scales at an incredible 1404.49 carats.

The news spread like wild fire from Ratnapura, the City of Gems, where the stunning sapphire that has been named…… ‘The Star of Adam’ has dwarfed the next largest Blue Star Sapphire, a 1395 carat beauty on its own merit, once owned by the Guruge Brothers, but with its present ownership yet unknown.

The US$ 100 million cabochon-cut star sapphire flaunts a distinctly unique six-rayed beauty and is believed to have been mined at an undisclosed site, around August last year, between Ratnapura and Hatton, before it was sold to its current owner.

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Afghanistan aims to choke Taliban smuggling funds with gemstone bourse (Reuters U.K. – November 12, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – Afghanistan aims to deprive Taliban militants of funds from smuggled exports of the prized blue gemstone, lapis lazuli, by creating its own bourse to sell the stone, which has been traded for thousands of years in the Hindu Kush mountains.

The Taliban is increasingly financed by criminal enterprises such as smuggling gemstones like lapis, rubies, emeralds, as well as heroin laboratories and kidnapping.

Afghanistan loses roughly $100 million a year through gemstone smuggling, more than the total exports of commodities like coal and industrial minerals like talc, said the country’s mining minister.

“It’s a big issue for the people of Afghanistan, because they are losing their property to groups of terrorists which on one side are stealing our property and on the other side are strengthening their terrorist group.

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Gemfields Bets on Gemstone Market’s Growth – by Russell Shor and Robert Weldon (GIA.com – January 26, 2015)

http://www.gia.edu/

Established in 1931, GIA is the world’s foremost authority on diamonds, coloured stones and pearls. A public benefit, non-profit institute, GIA is the leading source of knowledge, standards and education in gems and jewellery.

In late November 2014, Gemfields unveiled a 40.23 ct ruby it had just unearthed from its Montepuez ruby deposit in Mozambique. The discovery made headlines, the kind usually reserved for large diamonds.

Indeed, when Gemfields’ CEO Ian Harebottle speaks about the colored gemstone industry, the word “potential” comes up in just about every sentence. He believes that colored gemstones’ share of luxury goods sales could increase greatly around the world—potentially rivaling diamonds—if jewelry manufacturers and retailers could count on regular supplies, stable pricing, consistent grading, and increased marketing support. He has set his company’s goals on doing just that.

Gemfields faces a tall order in catching up to diamonds. Sales of gemstones remain a small fraction of diamond sales worldwide. In the US, they represent about 8% of jewelry store sales by value, according to the 2014 Jewelers of America’s Cost of Doing Business Survey.

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Sustainable Mining: The Importance of Responsibly-Sourced Diamonds and Gemstones – by Steve Bennett (Huffington Post – September 22, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/

Steve Bennett is the founder of Gemporia.

This blog is part of a month-long focus around sustainable fashion across HuffPost UK Style and Lifestyle. Here we aim to champion some of the emerging names in fashion and shine a light on the truth about the impact our appetite for fast fashion has around the world.

The trade of unethical diamonds and gemstones is something that the jewellery industry has become increasingly concerned with in recent years. The film release of Blood Diamond in 2006 put the issue into the forefront, leading businesses to readdress their ethical approach following the uproar from celebrities and industry leaders alike calling for the international governments to take notice.

However, as the spotlight starts to fade, it is important that the subject remains a high profile one. The fact that unsustainable mining still exists today is because there is a demand for it; change only happens when the diamond and gemstone trade are effectively challenged. For example, over a quarter of rough cut diamonds in circulation are being processed as blood diamonds.

A ground-breaking report back in 1998 was one of the first to call out the issues of the trade; exposing the role of diamonds funding war in Angola.

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The sexiest mining company in the world – by Warren Dick (Mineweb.com – September 16, 2015)

 

http://www.mineweb.com/

And it’s not just Mila Kunis that’s bringing a sparkle to investors’ eyes.

JOHANNESBURG – So you’re probably thinking the world’s sexiest mining company is a gold company? Heavens, no! (BTW that’s so 1980’s). Is it a diamond company? Mmmm, close. But no cigar. So what is it then? Why, it’s actually a coloured gemstone miner called Gemfields, listed in London.

Gemstones comprise rubies, sapphires and emeralds – amongst many others – and Gemfields has been very good at pulling them out, hand over fist, from its Kagem emerald mine (Zambia) and Montepuez ruby mine (Mozambique).

But to call it just a mining company might be a bit restrictive. “We’re in the business of stimulating both demand for, and supply of, our gemstones,” said CEO Ian Harebottle in an interview with Mineweb recently.

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The Blood Red Rubies of Burma (DOCUMENTARY) – June 2015

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuuRPqRkd4bUZxDSActiiog/feed

The Mogok Valley in Upper Myanmar (Burma) was for centuries the world’s main source for rubies. That region has produced some of the finest rubies ever mined, but in recent years very few good rubies have been found there. The very best color in Myanmar rubies is sometimes described as “pigeon’s blood.”

In central Myanmar, the area of Mong Hsu began producing rubies during the 1990s and rapidly became the world’s main ruby mining area. The most recently found ruby deposit in Myanmar is in Namya (Namyazeik) located in the northern state of Kachin.

Ruby Country – as the Burmese call their country, which is famous for the jewels as red as blood. In the old days the rubies were in maharajas ownership. They were sold to the Europeans. Today, trade with the red rubies is fully at the hands of the military government field in the. They are currently the new owners of the mines. The golden triangle is the largest and most dangerous ruby country in the world.

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