2. A Brief Introduction
• Sapphires are precious stones.
• Comes in many colors, Most commonly:
blue, yellow, pink.
• Variety of the mineral Corundum.
• 9 Hardness.
• Most commonly used in jewelry.
• Other uses are in scientific instruments, high durability
windows, wrist watch crystals, very thin electronic
wafers.
• Aluminum Oxide- trace elements of other minerals
give it its color-
iron, titanium, chromium, copper, magnesium.
3. The Logan Sapphire
One of the largest Sapphires found. It was found in Sri Lanka. It is
422.99 carats.
5. Locations of Sapphires
Sapphires can be found in
a number of places. • Cambodia
• Burma • China
• Kashmir, India • Malawi
• Sri Lanka • Nigeria
• Thailand • Tanzania
• Madagascar • Canada
• United States • Czech Republic
• Australia • Kenya
• Vietnam • Laos
• Colombia • Pakastan
6. Locations of Sapphires
• Burmese and Kashmir are the most sought after
• From 1970’s to 2000 Australia was the world’s largest
producer of Sapphires
• Madagascar is currently the world’s supplier of
Sapphires
• Sri Lanka has produced the most large sized stones.
• Burma used to be one of the most desirable locations
for Sapphires, but now few good Sapphires are being
produced.
• Kashmir Sapphires are know to be the highest quality
stones, but most mining has stopped. Only sporadic
mining is done.
7. Mining Techniques
Traditional Pit Mining:
• An example of pit mining would be when a vertical shaft is
dug by hand until they have they have reached gem level.
• A makeshift bamboo crane is assembled.
• The crane is used to bring up buckets of soil to be washed
and sieved.
• This method of mining is very dangerous and back-braking.
• These types of mines tend to collapse or cave in because
there is nothing supporting the walls of the pit.
• Pit Mining is an inexpensive operation to run but it also
doesn’t produce a large quantity of stones. Only a few men
are required to operate the mine.
9. Mining Techniques
Open Pit Mining:
• Is a small operation.
• An area is dug to gem level by machinery.
• Usually about 10 feet down to start.
• After the initial pit is dig everything else is
done by hand in small sections and sieved.
• This method does not produce a large
amount of gemstones.
11. Mining Techniques
Open Cast Mining:
• The work is seasonal
• This type of mining has to be done during the monsoon season, usually
around May to September.
• Large amounts of water is required to operate the hoses used to wash the
soil.
• A very large pit has to be dug.
• They use a large rotating drum with pumps and hoses.
• The soil is dug out with machinery and then placed on a rotating drum. The
drum washes and separates the gravel.
• The gems are removed from the pit and placed on a pulsating jig. The jig is
used to separates the soil from the gems.
• They try to minimize the environmental impact by refilling parts of the pit
that have already been mined.
• Gemstone production can vary greatly from day to day mostly depending on
the area being dug.