September 2, 2008: Sapphires

[xoxoxoBruce]

When I think of sapphires, the bright blue stones come to mind, but they actually run the whole spectrum of the rainbow.



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.



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.

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

Next time your kids bitch about going to school, show them the alternatives.

[Treasenuak]

Oooohhhh @ top pic. My son's birthstone is sapphire; didn't realize how many different colors there were!

[xoxoxoBruce]

He should buy you a different shade every birthday.

[Pie]

These are the sapphires I am used to:

[xoxoxoBruce]

If I can't have a Sapphire, I'll settle for a Ruby Begonia.

[ZenGum]

Pie: aren't you glad you didn't cut your finger on that!!!



Sheldon ... your "special" beads have arrived.

[glatt]

And I'm sending my love on down that well...

[Sheldonrs]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Pie: aren't you glad you didn't cut your finger on that!!!



Sheldon ... your "special" beads have arrived.

But will it go with the pearl necklace you already gave me?

[Cloud]

zing!

[barefoot serpent]

Trace amounts of elements give the color:
Titanium --> blue
Chromium --> red

mixtures of titanium, iron and chromium everthing in between.

[floatingk]

You can actually bake sapphires to turn out in any color you want. Theres a nice and unique place up in MT where you can wander around and find em, have em cut and then heat treated to your color.

As far as I can tell these blow diamonds out of the water.

[Shawnee123]

I looooovvvvveeeee sapphires! Had them included in my wedding ring set, it was custom made and very unusual and beautiful.

[Sundae]

I bought two rings when I was on holiday in Sri Lanka (another hotspot of sapphire mining)
One looked like amethyst and the other was a bright blue

I might have thought twice if I'd seen the conditions they were undoubtedly acquired in.

[ZenGum]

Have you seen "Blood Diamonds"?

[footfootfoot]

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.

Sebastion Salgado's Workers has quite a few photographs that would make that seem like a walk in the park.

From a Brazilian gold mine. The workers "rent" a meter square parcel of landand dig straight down. They then add their pail of mud to a larger lot which is then sifted for gold. The total pay out is prorated among the others in your lot. e.g. if you bring up 20 pails and the guy next to you brings up 15 pails you get shares proportional to your input of mud. It doesn't matter if your pails were the ones with all the gold, you are part of a pool.

The images are truly stupendous and this tiny screen shot barely shows what is happening.