Gem Mining

Gem smuggling, The term evokes pictures of swashbuckling pirates and trench-coated international spies. The reality is far more gritty and...

The most widely-used gemstone exploration techniques today are ground-penetrating radar, known as GPR; trace-element analysis, which involves seeking signature elements...

Afghanistan's ruby/spinel mines are one of the great mysteries of gemology. Historically, rubies and red spinels have been produced from...

Do you know what diamonds, rubies, and emeralds are? "Jewels" is the answer most people offer. It's an accurate answer,...

The gem's first known owner was Abu Said, a Moorish prince of Granada in Spain in the mid-1300s. Abu Said...

While a worldwide shortage in gem rough sends prices spiralling upward, gem deposits in Africa are lying unworked, or underworked,...

Yellow-green beryl has achieved 'desired gem' status with consumers just within the last few years. Museums were eager to acquire...

High quality ruby is being mined in the province of Rukwa , in the southern highlands of Tanzania , according...

It is morning in Hweka, deep in northern Burma’s Kachin State. Outside the window, the roar of the river below...

The history of Burma’s jade mines in the West is a brief one. While hundreds of different reports, articles and...

Think they just lie around? Oh, no! Rocks are constantly meeting, mingling, and occasionally making gemstones. Every so...

All-natural Oregon sunstone and similar-looking treated andesine once sold as natural are locked in apples-and-oranges competition that is both unfair...

Mining Boulder Opal in Koroit, Queensland, Australia. Here is a quick (& amateurishly done) look at mining boulder opal in...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

Geologist Juan Manuel Garca-Ruiz calls it "the Sistine Chapel of crystals," but Superman could call it home. A sort of...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

Afghanistan is not only a country in perpetual turmoil, but also a geological miracle. Can they now harness 1,000 billion...

Money and Madness (1998) - Penetrating the shady world of Colombia's emerald dealers, we meet private armies and pistol-packing miners....

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...

I have met a few cockatoos in my day, but on this day, in early June, I met Sunny and...

Colored gemstone mining is a hard thing to pin down. The vast majority of mining is still done by independent,...