Important Note: The author: Vincent Pardieu is an employee of GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Laboratory Bangkok since Dec 2008. Any views expressed on this website - and in particular any views expressed by Vincent Pardieu - are the authors' opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GIA or GIA Laboratory Bangkok . GIA takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content on this website nor is GIA liable for any mistakes or omissions you may encounter. GIA is in particular not screening, editing or monitoring the content on this website and has no possibility to remove, screen or edit any content.
We are gemologists (gemmologists) sharing a passion for gemstones, gemolology (gemmology), gem people and traveling.
You will find in this website gemological expedition reports and some studies of gemological interest.
Visiting many gem mining areas we saw that people in remote mining and trading areas have difficulties to access to gemological publications. As today the Internet can be accessed in most of these gem mining areas and trading centers, the author started to build this website to give gem people living there the opportunity to see the result of the gemological expeditions they were associated in. It is a way to thanks them for their time and collaboration and to help them to get access to more gemological information.
At the same time the author hope that these expedition reports will please the people from consuming countries interested in gemstones and fascinated by their mysterious origins. Our purpose here is to help people facing difficulties to get quality first hand information about gems and their origins to get the information they need through this website and its links.
With our field expeditions to gemstone mines and gem markets around the world, we intend also here to share our passion for photography, gems and our fascination for the work of the "Gem People" bringing gemstones from the ground to magnificent jewelry.
From the gems external beauty to the intimate beauty of gemstone inclusions, from gem lore to the mines, the people and the landscapes gems origin from, we expect to share with you our passion for gemstone beauty.
We also invite you to join us on some gemological forums we are active in as they are convenient tools to get rapid answers to your questions as they are regularly visited by many other passionate gemologists, jewelers, hobbyists and professionals willing to learn more and share their knowledge about gemstones.
Website Map
Index page: Vincent Pardieu's Blog
About the Author
About me : How did a countryside Frenchman became a "Shameless travel addicted gemologist"? ( Under construction)
October 2007: Gemological expedition to East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) with Richard W. Hughes, Mike Rogers, Guillaume Soubiraa, Warne and Monty Chitty and Philippe Bruno:
Sep. 2005: Madagascar with Richard W. Hughes and Dana Schorr (Will be available one of these days...)
Summer 2005: Gemological expeditions to South East Asia (Vietnam) South Asia (Sri Lanka) and East Africa (Kenya, Madagascar and Tanzania) with J.B. Senoble and Tanguy Lagache with the support of the AIGS, the ICA and the Gubelin Gem Lab:
- Introduction to AIGS/ICA/Gubelin Gem lab 2005 Expeditions
Special THANKS for their support for our field expeditions since 2005:
Any QUESTIONS?
about gems, gemology, field expeditions, studying gemology, minerals, jade, pearls or jewelry? We recommend these FORUMS where the author is contributing:
Do you want to STUDY GEMOLOGY?
Here are some recommended institutes where the author studied gemology in Thailand ... and was happy about his investment!
For those willing to go further after their gemological studies: Recommended Advanced Gemological Courses:
To finish here are some BOOKS about gemology the author have read and appreciated and would like to recommend to people willing to learn more about gemstones, gemology and the places where gemstones are found:
GIA FE06 (GIA Laboratory Bangkok Field Expedition 06): Apr. 04 - Apr. 05, 2009: Kanchanaburi That week end again I decided that watching TV or working on this website would not be a good option. It was time to continue my visits of Thailand sapphire mining areas for the GIA. "Monday to Friday at the lab, week end in the field!", this is a field gemologist type week. Something nice also as it enable the field gemologist to travel with few motivated friends and make the whole thing more pleasant and more efficient: With Richard W. Hughes, his wife Wimon Manoratkul, Valentina Petri, a young Austrian gemologist from Vienna and Raphaelle Delmotte, a young French girl working in Bangkok, we decided to leave Bangkok and spend the week end visiting sapphire mining areas around Kanchanaburi.
We drove to Bo Phloi, the small mining town 30km in the north of Kanchanaburi to visit the SAP sapphire mine. During the end of the 80's and the 90's, this mine was one of the largest sapphire mines in the world. It is something very unusual in Thailand where most of the gemstone mining operations were small scale mining. The SAP Company is an important industrial mining company which decided to mine gems. Again to have Richard W. Hughes with me was very interesting as he was the first to report about the SAP large scale mining operation when he visited the area as he noticed at the end of the 80's that many unusual sapphires appeared in the Bangkok gem trade. Wimon presence was also great as even if Richard and I can speak some Thai, to travel with a gemologist fluent in both Thai and English is really nice while meeting people at the mines. An when this gemologist is also an excellent photographer, and a great travel companion then the whole stuff turn into a dream team!
(A view over the mining operation as we saw it at SAP mine. The machines were then mainly removing the overburden to be able to work later th sapphire rich layer located 20 meters deep.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009)
The mine is much less active as in the past and the former mining pits were turned into lakes and their surroundings into a lovely golf and a week end resort. We could nevertheless witness some mechanical mining with excavators and trucks, but the miners told us that now due to the high cost of gas and to the fact that the best places were already mined, most of the income from the mining was not coming anymore from the sapphires but from the sand and the other construction material. Nevertheless, sapphire mining was still active and a huge washing plant was processing the gem rich ground bring by the trucks.
(A security guard is watching the workers picking sapphires on the belt at SAP mine, Kanchanaburi.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009)
Further at the mine sorting house a group of workers were sorting the sapphire rich gravels on a mechanical belt... Besides sapphires the mine is know to produce a lot a black opaque spinel (locally called "nin") and some zircons. We saw few sapphires that day as they were then sorting the big gravels: Most of the mine was reported to be currently composed of small stones. But Kanchanaburi is known to have produced many sapphires over 50 carats.
(A French girl and a Thai stone: Raphaelle Delmotte holding a small blue sapphire from Kanchanaburi.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009)
After that visit we returned to Kanchanaburi and visited a little the area around the famous bridge over the River Kwai. Besides few genuine gemstones a multitude of vendors were selling mainly imitations and synthetics were, a real nightmare/wonderland for gemologists willing to train their skills! All the best,
Important Note: Vincent Pardieu is an employee of GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Laboratory Bangkok since Dec 2008. Any views expressed on this website - and in particular any views expressed by Vincent Pardieu - are the authors' opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GIA or GIA Laboratory Bangkok. GIA takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content on this website nor is GIA liable for any mistakes or omissions you may encounter. GIA is in particular not screening, editing or monitoring the content on this website and has no possibility to remove, screen or edit any content.
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