An update on Ruby and Sapphire mining
in South East Asia and East Africa.
Summer 2005

Madagascar 2005

By Vincent Pardieu
and Jean Baptiste Senoble

General Presentation: (visit here)

Part 1) Introduction: (visit here)

Part 2) Vietnam: (visit here)

Part 3) Sri Lanka: (visit here)

Part 4) Madagascar:

After landing in Antananarivo on June 03rd ,2005 , we met several friends that helped us prepare for the trip. Then we went to the new ruby mining area in Antsahanandriana, located between Antananarivo and Antsirabe near Ambohimandroso. There, a gem rush has followed the discovery of gem quality rubies and pink sapphires in December 2004. After a short period of inactivity, due to some mining conflicts from January to August 2005, people are currently mining there. The most important mining company is SLM (Societe Latvia Madagascar) a Russian group.

(Left to right: Jean Baptiste Senoble with a Russian miner in Ambohymandroso, ICA Ambassador, Tom Cushman after a good lunch in a local French restaurant in Antananarivo .
Photos: Vincent Pardieu and Jean baptiste Senoble, 2005)

Then after one day driving, we reached Ilakaka and Sakaraha, the very rich and famous gem deposit in the south of the island not far from Toliara (also known as “Tulear”). This area has been the most active mining and trading area on the island since its discovery in 1998. Sapphires from all over Madagascar are traded there. More than 100.000 people are believed to make a living from the gem business in this area. Ilakaka's main street was busy while we were there, but things are getting more difficult as good stones are becoming rarer and people are searching for new deposits. Ilakaka, Sakaraha, and more recently Manombe, are emerging as competitive trading centers with a strong Sri Lankan presence.

(Left to Right: Arriving in Ilakaka; Small scale gem mining in Ilakaka countryside,
Photos: Jean Baptiste Senoble, 2005)

(Left to right:Meeting with Thai buyers in Ilakaka gem market, Ilakaka fancy and blue sapphires. Photo: Vincent Pardieu 2005)

After visiting several small-scale and mechanized mining areas near Ilakaka, we moved to Sakaraha. Then we had a three day hard drive through the nearly desert south to reach Andranondambo. This being a metasomatic blue sapphire mining area near Tolanaro (also formerly known as “ Fort Dauphin ” ) which was the place where the first gem quality sapphires were found in Madagascar in 1994. There SIAM (Societe d'Investissement Australian a Madagascar ), an Australian company, are starting a large scale exploitation. It can be expected that some Andranondambo sapphires could reach the market again within the next months. Besides SIAM , several small scale mines are also present with some Thai, Sri Lankan, and African buyers present in the area.

(Left to Right: On the way to the sapphire mines in Andrnondambo, Preparing the mining camp at SIAM mine.
Photos: Jean Baptiste Senoble, 2005)

We came back from Fort Dauphin to Antananarivo by plane. We had one full day driving east to Vatomandry and its ruby deposit located in the neighboring mountains covered by rain forests. The place became famous after its discovery in late 2000 when it began to produce fine quality basaltic type rubies. After a short period of important activity, the deposit has become much quieter since the gem rush to Andilamena in 2004. Now, we were told, less than fifty miners were working at Tetezampaho, the main deposit. Even so, several Thai buyers were present in the city streets. We decided not to visit Tetezampaho as such a trip would have taken us around four days with a hard walk in the mountainous jungles. Nevertheless, we went to visit several small scale mining operations north of the city.

(Left to Right: A Malagasy miner in his pit in Vatomandry. Details on Vatomandry rubies. Photos: Vincent Pardieu: 2005)

After Vatomandry, we continued our trip by road to Andilamena, a two day drive. This ruby and “polychrome sapphire” deposit also located in the jungle was known in 2000 for rubies but after the discovery of an important new deposit in July 2004, many miners from all over the island have stormed the place and soon the jungle village named Moramanga that has grown from nothing to a 15.000 person muddy village. Now, more than 30.000 people are living mining and trading gems either in Andilamena city or in the jungle nearby. The Andilamena area is as a result the most active and populated ruby and sapphire mining area currently after Ilakaka. The deposit found in July 2004 was mainly producing the locally called “ruby star” material which was the base material for most of the “lead glass filled rubies” we saw at AIGS laboratory in Bangkok after October 2004. In March 2005, a few hundred meters from this deposit, a new ruby deposit was found. We reached the area after one day walking through the rain forest covered mountains. A new mining village was established around 1 km from Moramanga at Tananarivekel. This new deposit looks to be the primary deposit from which stones mined in alluvial deposits (as early as 2000) originate. Now most of Andilamena mining force is working these new rubies and few miners are mining the material for the lead glass treatment.

(Left to Right: Crawling inside a mine tunnel in Andilamena, View on Moramanga jungle mining city,
Photos: Jean Baptiste Senoble, 2005)

(Left to Right: Washing the gem rich ground and the new rubies from Tananarivekel area.
Photos: Vincent Pardieu, 2005)

Finally, after returning to Antananarivo , we had a flight to the blue, green, and yellow basaltic sapphire deposit near Diego Suarez in Ambondromifehy from which sapphires very close to the stones found in other basaltic deposits like Thailand , Cambodia , Laos , and Australia have been produced since 1996. The activity there was quite low; the usual African buyers that used to buy the low quality production from the area are now less present while Thai dealers are strong. As the low quality gems are less easy to sell, the area could face some problems and a decrease in the production.

(Left to Right: A young mother selecting sapphires; Ambondromefehy sapphires,
Photos: Vincent Pardieu, 2005)

Other ruby and sapphire deposits are known in the island but their production is currently very low or does not involve much gem quality material. We decided not to spend time in these areas as our Madagascar scouting trip was just 36 days which is short for such a huge country which is known to have only two good roads! We have nevertheless heard during our trip of very fine quality sapphire coming from Andrebabe (south of Andilamena). Alluvial rubies and sapphires are also found in the mountains covered in deep rain forest east of Andilamena up to Fenoarivo. This area and all the jungle covered eastern mountainous coast especially to the east of Fiananrantsoa host the major hopes for new important deposits to be found. Corundum deposits are also known in the south near Bekily, Ejeda, Betroka, Ikongo, and also in many other areas on the island. A new pink ruby deposit was just found as I write these words near Maevatanana, 300 km north of Antananarivo in the direction of Diego Suarez and possibly a new deposit of dark blue sapphire has been found to the west of Antsirabe. Other sapphire deposits are known in the north in fancy places in the small touristic island of Nosy Be, or between Andapa and Ambilobe. In Madagascar one thing is for sure; Rubies and sapphire will still to be found for years and years…

In Madagascar regarding the stones by themselves, it seems that the market present a lot of challenges for the buyer. Foreign stones from other African countries and possibly other continents are probably mixed with local stones or sold as local gems. Tumbled synthetics are present in all mining areas as well as rough stones dyed with ink. Heated rough that did not react correctly to heat treatment are also present in the markets as well as stones locally heated at low temperatures. The island is also famous for excellent fake crystals but if we heard a lot about such stones we did not actually see any as we focused our trip on rubies and sapphires.

We would like to thank all the companies and private persons that provided us with some help while on this field trip. Especially Mr. Tom Cushman, ICA ambassador to Madagascar for the time he gave to us, SIAM, SLM, SMDA, Hotel “Relais de la reine” near Ilakaka and the local Madagascar authorities for their help and support. We have to say that during our entire trip in the island we never had any problems, were welcomed everywhere and received support from both local people involved in the gem trade as well as from the authorities.

Part 5: Report about Kenya (July 2005) (visit here)

Part 6: Report about Tanzania (August 2005) (visit here)

Visit also our 2006 fieldtrip reports

Introduction: Presentation of the AIGS, Gubelin Gem Lab, ICA 2006 fieldtrip to central Asia: (visit here)

Part 1: Pakistan: The Central Asian capital of the gemstone trade. (visit here)

Part 2: Afghanistan: Land of beautiful gems and unique people. (visit here)

Part 3: Tajikistan: Gems from the Pamirs. (visit here)

Part 4: China (Xin Jiang): Emeralds from the silk road. (visit here)

Note: For more information and photos about all these different areas, please visit our photo galleries available from our home page.

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