| xoxoxoBruce |
10-02-2008 07:52 AM |
September 2, 2008: Sapphires
When I think of sapphires, the bright blue stones come to mind, but they actually run the whole spectrum of the rainbow.
http://cellar.org/2008/Sapphires1.jpg
Boston.com shows us sapphire mining in Ilakaka, Madagascar.
In the big open pits, a human chain moves the dirt(ore) up to the top by way of a human chain, with shovels. About as labor intensive as it gets.
http://cellar.org/2008/sapphires2.jpg
The independent, freelancers, wildcatters, whatever you call them, just dig a hole. A small, deep hole, just big enough to lower one of their children on a rope, to fill the bucket with dirt.
http://cellar.org/2008/sapphire3.jpg
Quote:
The tiny village of Ilakaka, Madagascar had barely 40 residents before 1998. Then, a large deposit of sapphires was discovered along a nearby riverbed, and caught the eye of some Thai businessmen in the gem trade. Word got out, and Ilakaka swelled to tens of thousands of residents - the center of a sapphire boom, today the source of nearly 50% of all the sapphires in the world. Illegal miners mixed with large-scale operations, all operating under little or no regulation, in a wild-west atmosphere of potential fortunes, lawlessness, violence and hardship. In the years since, the easily-mined sapphire fields have been picked clean, and the remaining miners often work in deep holes, climbing far underground. Mining is also a family effort - according to an official study, of the 21,000 children living in the region, 19,000 belong to working families
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Next time your kids bitch about going to school, show them the alternatives.;) |
