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In 1998, people started to move from the northern to the southern area of Madagascar. Gem merchants had mostly lived in the northern part of Madagascar, as it is in that area where sapphires are most common. A Thai merchant had managed to get a parcel of rough sapphires with the same quality as Sri Lankan sapphires. Because of this, Madagascar has now become a haven for sapphire dealers. Within 3 months, the city of llakaka changed from having small local miners to big ones that would be able to supply gems to over 200 Thai gem merchants, thus building the sapphire market in Madagascar. |
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The city of llakaka is in the southern part of Madagascar, about 710 kilometers from Antatanarivo, and
250 kilometers north of Tulear. It was just a small city that no one cared about, that is, until a big sapphire deposit was discovered. The city never had any hotels, had no electricity, and there were no foreigners who even knew the name
of llakaka. Initially, the city had a population of 500 people. Today, over 20,000 people live in llakaka;
1 as you can see from the photos I took in July 1999, and August 2001.
Both Thai and Sri Lankan gem merchants go to llakaka for blue sapphires. Initially, when one bought blue sapphires, local merchants would offer pink sapphires along with the blues. Although the price of these pink sapphires was one-tenth of that of the blue sapphires,
buyers refused to purchase them. I recall the first time I saw pink sapphires. It struck me that they were beautiful gems, and looked very much like pink diamonds. Why would no one buy them?
At that time, pink sapphires were much more plentiful than blue sapphires; almost ten times as much.In 1999, p\r\k sapphires were not well known to gem dealers. People generally knew only blue and yellow sapphires. Gem dealers who were looking for blue sapphires in llakaka did not even look at the pink sapphires, even though there was a huge supply in comparison with other colored sapphires available in the market.
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Miners in llakaka start out in a group of about 5-8 people. They would then dig a large mine of about 4-5 meters in diameter, and more than 10 meters deep on one step. A second step will be 50 centimeters smaller in diameter. The digging goes down until the last step reaches the bottom of the mine.
The miner standing on the deepest step will put all the sand or rocks gathered together in a burlap sack and send it to the second one, who will send it on the third one and so on until the sack reaches the miner on the top, The miner at the top will pour sand and rock -as you can see in the photo and try to select pieces of stone that might be of value to the overseas buyer. After that, they take it to sell in the city for just enough money for food to go back to the mine again. It may seem very simple, but it is definitely not. Mostly because they need water to wash the sand away from the gems, and they don't know what kind of gems they will get. Also, they don't know what gem quality would be worth the most money from their hard work.
llakaka is a desert; it is difficult to get water just for drinking. Yet miners must find water to wash the sand and rocks to find gems, if indeed there are any at all in that particular mine. In one trip, one group mines an average of one ton of sand and rock, and walks an average of 10 kilometers over rocks and rough terrain to find a source of water to wash them.
in Madagascar is very hot, sometimes averaging 110 degrees Fahrenheit. In the rainy season, it becomes dangerous to mine. Miners must stay all day in their pits, searching for precious stones. They never know when a wind will come and blow the rocks over them, or when rain will cause the collapse of the mine.
As you can see, each pink sapphire must go through many difficult and long processes before it can be cut. So this might be one of the reasons why pink sapphire is still in demand while supply is rare. Look in the next edition of Manee for: How Pink Sapphires Stay On. |
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Mining of Pink Sapphire
