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 FE04 (GIA Laboratory Bangkok Field Expedition 04): Feb. 27- Mar. 01, 2009: Back to Pailin! A second week end visit to Pailin in order to complete the visit we had few weeks ago: This time our objectives for this new week end expedition were to visit again the Khao Ploy Waen sapphire mines near Chanthaburi, the gem mines near Pailin and last but not least to visit the Phnum Trop volcano located in the mountainous jungle south of Pailin: With a group of friends we visited already this volcano in 2004. Five years after that visit it was interesting to get an update. During the past week Votha did the necessary with the Pailin authorities to get an approval for our visit. For that expedition I travelled with a large group of friends: Richard W. Hughes and Wimon Manoratkul (Thailand), Loretta Castorro (USA), Walter Balmer (Switzerland), Flavie Isatelle, Philippe Ressigeac, Olivier Segura (France) and Randy Price (Canada).
In fact the visit was much easier as expected: The Russian Company who got the mining license few years ago did some good job repairing the dirt road to the top of the volcano and the Pailin local authorities provided us a good pick-up and an escort. We reached the mines after just one small mechanical problem, few short walks and several not so rough drives.
(The pick up loaded with 9 gemologists, a guide, an escort officer and a driver is ready to go!,
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009)
Sadly we could not witness any mining activity on the Phnum Trop as the Russian company was only doing some exploration work and the Russian miners were not present at the time of our visit. Only two guards were present. We return then to Pailin in the afternoon earlier than expected but it was not a bad thing as we were able to visit again the ruby mines we visited during FE01. It was again a good occasion to collect some useful ruby samples just out of the jig!
(A Khmer miner presenting us the result of one day working near O Beng: mostly garnets and few rubies.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009)
On Sunday morning we could visit the Pailin gem market which was less busy compared to last December. Nevertheless we could see some interesting parcels which pleased the young gemologists traveling with me that day. On the way back we could also witness some sapphire in a stream and again some ruby mining near O Beng.
(Down Phnum Yat Temple, Randy Price is checking some stones at the Pailin gem market.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009)
Again a very good week end expedition even if we could not witness any mining on the Phnum Trop as I was able to collect some interesting Pailin ruby and sapphire samples for the GIA's reference collection.
Here is a link to a beautiful photo gallery by Richard W.Hughes and Wimon Manoratkul which was put online on www.ruby-sapphire.com after our expedition to Pailin:
"Rhapsody in blue: A Pailin photo gallery"
Hoping that you will enjoy it as much as I did!
Here is a link to "Gems and Geology": Flavie Isatelle new website. She was.. lets say "convinced" by Richard and myself that the best thing for her to do was to build her own website and start writting about her gem and geologyl expeditions. You will find there her report about her Pailin experiences.
All the best,
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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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