Gemstone mines and other finds

Gemstones are decorative stones of high value, used in adornments, mostly – in jewelry.

Kinds of gemstones

None can say the exact number of kinds of gemstones. Creative lapidaries can make beautiful jewelry for almost any materials – but the most widely used are some 30 kinds of gemstones.

More than 100 other kinds of natural stones are gorgeous gemstones as well but are used less frequently due to their extreme rarity or rare occurrence of gemstone quality samples.

Qualities

Main distinguishing qualities of gemstones are:

• Beauty – most important value. Distinguished gemstones have lively, lucid color (e.g. the incredible blue color of the best tanzanites) or even many colors (high-quality opals and spectrolite). Top-quality gemstones should not be just transparent crystals, they should have special brilliance, luster. Best in this respect is the king of gemstones – diamond, but some other gemstones, like zircon and garnets, also have a high index of refraction.Lucidity, transparency is another important factor for most gemstones – the beauty of emerald, ruby, or spinel can be appreciated only if the crystal is clean. Many gemstones have specific "wow" factor – unique light effects. Thus alexandrite or the very rare blue garnet change their color according to the lighting – they are red in artificial light and green or blue – in natural light. Spectrolite and opal have a special effect of iridescence and some stones have specific inclusions that cause the effect of asterism.
• Hardness, stability, and/or sturdiness – this quality is important for practical reasons – after all, people would be happy to use their jewels often and at the same time retain their jewelry as the legacy of the family for many generations. Some gemstones belong to the hardest substances known in nature (diamond, sapphire, ruby, chrysoberyl, and the extremely rare moissanite). There are comparatively soft gemstones – such as amber or chrysocolla – but these can be used as gemstones thanks to their comparatively high sturdiness. A weak point of many popular gemstones is their loss of quality over the time. Thus, some especially bright colors in crystals are caused by natural radioactivity – and, as the crystals are removed from their original location, after some years the beautiful color is lost. Softer gemstones over time can become dull – their surface is covered with crevices and scratches. Very often gemstones are artificially improved – and lose their improvements over time.
• Rarity. Jewelry is a mode of expression – and in order to excel, one needs to have something unique. There are just a handful of red diamonds or blue garnets with changing color in the world – it is simpler and cheaper to buy a Lamborghini than such a stone. One tiny blue garnet (4.2 carats) has been sold for 6.8 million dollars in 2003. Or – one can try to become the owner of the gem-quality natural moissanite or johnkoivulaite (represented by ONE piece) or grandidierite crystals or chase the few existing gem-quality musgravites, grandidierites or serendipities, each costing millions of dollars.

Gemstone mines and finds

While such gemstones as diamonds can have classic mines with state-of-the-art equipment, very often the gemstones are mined by hard manual labor.

Even in their places of finding gemstones are scarce and one needs to sift tons of rock to find a gem.

"Gem fever" can start with a lucky find of two – three beautiful stones. Often nothing more is found – but sometimes findings continue and then more and more people arrive in the search of luck.

Sometimes the gemstone mine is exhausted in one or two years. But sometimes gems are mined for millennia and such mines become legendary – such as the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan (Sar i Sang) and Tajikistan (Ladzhuar-Dara) or Maya jadeite mines (El Ciprés in Guatemala).

The process of gem mining is far from graceful and romantic. In less developed countries gem mining communities too often are living in terrible shanty towns and are suffering from violent crime. Gemstone mines for the most part are dangerous ratholes that can collapse over the heads of miners.

After their finding gems travel from one hand to others, miraculously becoming more and more expensive. Finally, the miners earn just a tiny fraction of the final price of the gemstone.

Nature’s unspoilt beauty

Irrespective of the hustle around the gemstones they are beautiful. Many rare coincidences were needed to create them – extreme pressure or exceptionally long time periods with very even natural circumstances and purity. One can think that gemstones are a kind of summit in nature’s achievements, at least in the realm of inanimate things.

Nothing compares to the feeling when one takes a jewel in hand and looks at it. Legs may become a bit shaky, heart beats faster and, after a longer look at the gem, everything else feels pale and dull. Gemstones certainly have miraculous charisma and have influenced many lives by exposing the hidden nature of many people.

There are the following articles about the gemstone mines and finds: