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:
Dear all,
I would like to inform you of a new publication about tsavorite. It is about the geology of the Lemshuku deposit in Tanzania where these green garnets were discovered there in 1967.
"Lithostratigraphic and structural controls of ‘tsavorite’ deposits at Lemshuku, Merelani area, Tanzania",
- (a) CRPG-CNRS, Nancy université, 15, rue Notre-Dame-des-Pauvres, 54501 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
- (b) IRD-LMTG, 24, avenue Édouard-Belin, 31200 Toulouse, France
- (c) BRGM, 3, avenue Claude-Guillemin, 45060 Orléans, France
- (d) Department of Geology, University of Dar-es-Salaam, P.O. Box 35052, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
- (e) Swala Gem Traders, Uchumi House, Sokoine Road, Arusha, Tanzania
- (f ) ORYX, 3, rue Bourdaloue, 75009 Paris, France
- (g) GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 10th Floor, U-Chu-Liang Building, 968, Rama IV Road, Silom Bangrak, Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract:
The first study of the Lemshuku ‘tsavorite’ mining district is presented. From bottom to top, the lithostratigraphic column corresponds to a metasedimentary sequence composed of quartzite, fine-grained graphitic gneiss, kyanite-graphite gneiss, biotite-almandine gneiss, metasomatized graphitic gneiss and dolomitic marble. ‘Tsavorite’ occurs in quartz veins and rarely as nodular concretions. Two factors control mineralization: (1) lithostratigraphy, with ‘tsavorite’ in association with pyrite and graphite confined to quartz veins within the metasomatized graphitic gneiss; and (2) structure, with the mineralized veins characteristically controlled by tight isoclinal folds associated with shearing.
(Mark Saul of Swala Gem Traders presenting the author a piece of tsavorite he just mined at Lemshuku
Photo: V. Pardieu / Gubelin Gem Lab, 2007)
The author visited the Lemshuku deposit in 2005 and 2007 when Swala Gem Traders mined it. In 2009, few months after Julien Feneyrol to spend several weeks at Lemshuku to study the deposit, Swala Gem Traders stopped their mining operation there. While returning to East Africa in October 2009, the author was not able to get in contact with the new owner and thus could not visit it once again. If what is currently happening at the former mine operated in the past by Swala Gem Traders is not clear to the author, the area is nevertheless still very interesting as Tanzanite One with their "Tsavorite One" project have started also to prospect in the region around Lemshuku. The author would then not be surprised to read or hear again about Lemshuku in the future as one of the main tsavorite supplier in East Africa.
Note: Update about the July 2010 tsavorite workshop in Nairobi, Kenya:
Today I was able to communicate with Dr. Gaston Giuliani from the Nancy University on another subject related to Tsavorite: Last year in October 2009, we tried to visit together the ruby and tsavorite deposits in Kenya but our expedition was not really succesful (see blog Kenya 2009).
Dr. Giuliani and Dr. Ohnenstetter were then just back from a tsavorite workshop in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) and they were working on a similar project for 2010, this time in Nairobi (Kenya). Today I was told by Dr. Giuliani some excellent news about the Nairobi 2010 workshop he was then planning:
The workshop happened and reportedly turned to be very successful. After the workshop more than 40 people also were able to go on a field expedition to Tsavo lead by Dr. Cedric Simonet.
Currently a research program about tsavorite in collaboration between Kenyan and French Universities is in preparation. Dr. Giuliani told the author that he was very happy about the way things happened during summer 2010.
For more information about tsavorite, the author also invite you to read "Tsavorite, an Untammed Gem" an article written with R.W.Hughes, first published in ICA's InColor (Winter 2008)
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.
