This post is not about one of the author expeditions or about an article he collaborated with, but it is about one friend who was a constant source of inspiration for the author for many years. He was an inspiration before we actually met and he is still today as he is one of my most regular travel buddies: From 2005 to last month we visited Madagascar, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam ... That post is about my friend and mentor Richard W. Hughes.

Today I received the following press release (follow that link) from Sino Ressources Mining Corporation Ltd (Sino RMC) a mining company with a very interesting approach of gem mining. Richard W. Hughes has become CEO of the Sapphminco Division, and Senior Vice President of SinoRMC. Last Saturday he left Bangkok to Hong Kong where he will be based. This is sad news but also and good news.

Sad news as it will now be less easy for the author to meet Richard and benefit from his knowledge and experience about ruby and sapphires.

Good news as Richard will work on a very interesting project: Few months ago we visited together that mining operation on the Mekhong River banks near the city of Houay Xai in Laos. I visited already Houay Xai three times before that visit. Nevertheless that visit was a great surprise and one of the most interesting visit I had. The reason is simple: They were obviously trying to do there what I'm believing could be a great chance (and also a great challenge) for the gem industry:

I mean "conservation gem mining".

For several months visiting East Africa during summer 2009, the author visited several areas dedicated to conservation where gems were also produced. After spending 3 days under arrest in the Niassa National Reserve, trying to visit a ruby deposit in Mozambique, the author started to think seriously about concepts like "conservation gem mining" or "conservation gems". Nevertheless I was not thinking that just few months after I would visit a mining operation trying already to work for several years on such a project.

That was very motivating particularly as the author was working on his www.conservationgemology.org project.

Nevertheless Simon, the CEO of SinoRMC asked me to stay quiet for a while, as he was not yet feeling ready to communicate about what they were doing. They had first to be able to present some results, not only a nice project. No problem: For the GIA Laboratory Bangkok, the important thing is to be able to collect reference samples for our research projects on origin determination of gemstones. I can stay quiet for months or years if necessary.

But recently Sino Resources Mining Corporation has put a website online, hired Richard and sent that press release: It will be very interesting to follow what will happen between Laos, Australia and Hong Kong... So it is now time for this blog to go online and reveal a glimpse of what is going on near the great Mekhong River.

GIA FE03 (GIA Laboratory Bangkok Field Expedition 03): Feb. 06- Feb. 09, 2009: A visit to Houay Xai!
For my third field expedition for GIA Laboratory Bangkok, we continued our plans to visit the different mining area I used to visit regularly from 2001 to 2007. After 2 years away it was important to visit again my different contacts in the field and get some first hand information about the current gemstone mining situation around Bangkok.
This time with Walter Balmer, a former gemologist from the Gübelin Gem Lab currently doing a Ph.D. at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and Mike Rogers, one of my former travel buddies in Kenya and Tanzania, we had a week end expedition to "Golden Triangle" in Northern Thailand to visit the sapphire mines on the Mekong river banks near Houay Xai (Laos):
After a long night on a bus, we arrived in Chiang Kong, the Thai city opposite of Houay Xai. There we were happy to meet again Khun Noc, my local contact in the area. Noc is a very friendly and knowledgeable Thai gem dealer and also an expert on blue sapphire and zircon heat treatment.