Madagascar is known to be the
fourth largest island in the world,
an incredible island of unique
biodiversity with animals and
plants found nowhere else on our
planet. It is a land where many
species of lemurs, zebus, chameleons
and baobabs can be found.
It is interesting to imagine that
this huge island located in the
Indian Ocean off the East African
coast was part of a huge continent
before to become the island we
know: It separated 150 millions
years ago from a super-continent
known as "Gondwanaland".
If the separation with lands currently
forming Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique,
India and Sri Lanka resulted in
Madagascar's unique flora and
fauna, on the other hand the rocks
and gems from these lands still
share many similarities and it
is not surprising that Madagascar
surrounded long time ago by all
these countries famous for their
gems has also a huge gem potential.
Madagascar gem wealth was know
from the French colonial times
with the writting of Lacroix.
It was first famous since the
end of XVIII century for its pegmatites
producing quartz, beryls and tourmalines.
If gem quality corundums were
known in the island as we can
discover reading Lacroix work,
Madagascar became a known sapphire
producer after the sapphire rushs
in Andranondambo in 1994, Ambondromifehy
in 1996 and the discovery of the
huge alluvial deposit centered
around Ilakaka and Sakaraha in
1999. Since that discovery Madagascar
became probably the world first
sapphire producer. Regarding rubies
the discoveries of large deposits
in the deep jungles around Andilamena
and Vatomandry in 2000 were noticeables.
These facts explain Madagascar
honnor place in my 2005 fieldtrip
program. I visited Madagascar
twice at this period:
My first visit was from June 03
to July 07 2005 with a fieldtrip
supported by the AIGS gemological
laboratory in Bangkok, Thailand,
and the Gubelin Gem Lab in Lucern,
Switzerland, and the ICA (International
Colored stone Association). My
assistants were Jean Baptiste
Senoble and Tanguy Lagache, two
former students of the AIGS gemological
school in Bangkok, Thailand. We
arrived in Antananarivo also called
"Tana", Madagascar capital
located in the center of the island.
After few days visiting people
and Tana gem market, we went south
to Antsirabe, Madagascar main
gem trading centre as it is close
to the main pegmatite deposit.
On the way south to the major
Ilakaka sapphire deposit we stopped
to a new sapphire deposit in Ambohimandroso
which was discovered in dec 2004.
After visiting mines and gem markets
around Ilakaka and Sakaraha we
had a four days drive through
the arid south to reach Andranondambo
where blue sapphires were first
discover in 1994. We returned
to Tana by plane from Fort Dauphin
to visit the ruby mining area
near Vatomandry and then the ruby
and sapphire deposit in the east
of Andilamena. Finaly to complete
our visit of madagascar ruby and
sapphire deposits, we flied to
Diego Duarez in the extreme north
of the Island to visit the basaltic
sapphire deposit near Ambondromifehy.
I
returned to Madagascar in September
2005 with Gemologist Richard
W.Hughes, the author of "Ruby
and Sapphire" and gem dealer
Dana
Schorr. Traveling to gem mining
areas with Richard W.Hughes was
for me an old dream becoming true.
It turned also to be a real pleasure...
Arriving also in Tana we went
south to visit Antsirabe gem market
and continued our way to Ilakaka
and Sakaraha sapphire producing
area. We returned to Tana by plane
from Tulear to take again the
road to Andilamena where we visited
the small Andrebabe blue sapphire
deposit and had a second expedition
to the jungle on the east of Andilamena
to visit the ruby and sapphire
deposit.
Our
main objective during these two
expeditions was to visit the Andilamena
mining area which was is relatively
unknown. It was in 2005 the second
most active ruby and sapphire
mining area in Madagascar. But
compared to the famous Ilakaka
region, it is not located in an
arid area along Madagascar major
road. Andilamena is located in
the deep of the madagascar jungle
in a remote valley surrounded
by hills. Except traveling using
a helicopter, there is no other
way to reach it than a 12 hours
walk through the mountainous jungle.
I was very motivated to reach
Andilamena ruby and sapphire deposit
as the rubies I studied in Nov-Dec
2004 regarding to the new treatment
which will become famous as "lead
glass treatment" were coming
from the area. Several time during
my discussions with Mahiton Thondisuk
the Thai Burner involved in the
treatment he told me about his
time buying gems in Andilamena
in 2000. Thanks to the collaboration
of Thai Ruby Burner Mahiton Thondisuk
also known as "Kob"
I was able to release on AIGS
Gemological laboratory website
in feb 2005 a complete study about
this treatment: "Lead glass
filled/repaired rubies".
An update of this article was
then published in two parts by
a supplement to the Guide magazine
in 2006. As a result I invite
you to visit Andilamena's jungle
mining city: "Moramanga carrieres"
Imagine 15.000 people
rushing in a remote area
of Madagascar jungle for
a ruby rush: You will
have a muddy city. ruled
by men during the day
and by rats by night!
The mining city located
in the east of Andilamena
in the deep of the jungle
is called "Moramanga
Carrieres":
17°
01'58"S 48°48'11"E...
An incredible place as
you can discover as I
did with Jean Baptiste
Senoble in July 2005 with
the following video taken
by Jean Baptiste:
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Mining for rubies on
the hills around Moramanga
carrires is not an easy
task as the area is isolated
in the deep of Madagascar
Jungle. On this video
you can see how the Malagasy
miners work in order to
enable the other miners
to breath in the galeries
they dig to search for
rubies. The galleries
can be 50 meters deep
and sometimes up to 100
meters long. The oxygen
there is rare as people
work with candles and
electricity is not available.
Hard job but ingenious
people...
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Witnessing Malagasy miners
going down to search for
rubies was not enough
for Jean Baptiste Senoble:
Using the standart Malagasy
way to go down a mining
pit he decide to go down:
No rope, no ladder: Just
hands, feet and back...
It was his first attempt
to go down such a pit
it was 6 meters deep,
deep enough to be dangerous
but for a first attempt
it would have been foolish
to try to go down this
way in the deepest mining
pits which can be up to
50 meters.
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I could not let Jean
Baptiste alone visiting
the underground world
of the Malgasy miners.
In the deep of a mining
tunnel, around 10 meters
underground a miner explains
to me how he is able to
find sapphires there following
some "indicators":
Studying the underground
with a simple candle he
is able to locate the
gems.
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Visiting
Madagascar island turned to be
a real pleasure as we met during
our trip many very friendly Malagasy
people who did their very best
to help us. We were very surprised
about the kindness of the Malagasy
people as before our departure
Madagascar was most of the time
describe to me as a place "you
could not visit without a gun
near your seat"... In fact
we never have experienced any
serious difficulty regarding security.
Of course traveling in this island
where roads are scarce was sometimes
tough, but it was really a great
experience!
...
I would like to invite you now to follow our expedition in the new gem Eldorado!
...
 Madagascar Capital: Antananarivo officially, Tana for all... (soon)
 A visit to a new ruby mine at Ambohimandroso.
 On the road to Ilakaka.
 Ilakaka, the world's largest sapphire market.
 3 days travelling through the semi desertic south of Madagascar.
 Andranondambo, where the first Madagascar sapphires were discovered.
 Vatomandry: Rubies from the eastern coast.
 On the road to Andilamena. ( Soon )
 Jungle trip to the Andilamena ruby and sapphire mines.
 A visit to the Andilamena mines where 15000 people search the jungle for gems.
 Ambondromifehy, the Northern Madagascar sapphire capital.
I would like on this page to take the time to thanks all the friends and companies that helped
us to make this fieldtrip in Madagacar a success:
Didier who was so helpul to us, Marc Noveraz, Daniel Grondin, The ICA Ambassador to Madagascar: Tom Cushman,
SMDA for their precious help to build this trip,
Our drivers: Djuro and Thierry, our "captains" who helped us to visit the areas they are living and working: Mr Mamy from the PRGM, Gaston from Andranondambo,
Eunesime from Vatomandry, Aime, Gaetan and the people from the Magic hotel in Andilamena and Thierry from "Dieogo",
We dont want to forget the companies who welcomed us during our visit: SLM in Ambohimandroso, SIAM in Andranondambo, DST in Ilakaka,
Mr George and Mr Mamy from the PGRM for their welcome and their time. I want also to thanks all the Madagascar authorities
especially in Vatomandry, Andranondambo and Andilamena for their understanding, their collaboration and their support.
I would like also to thanks the
AIGS Laboratory in Bangkok,
Thailand and Gubelin Gem Laboratory,
Luzern, Switzerland and the ICA (International Colored stone Association) for the support provided.
Of course finaly I want to thanks my two assistants and former students, for their support on this trip:
Jean Baptiste Senoble and Tanguy Lagache.
All the best,
Vincent Pardieu
( Near Ilakaka on the way to a machanised mine lost in a beautiful landscape)
Photo: Tanguy Lagache, 2005)
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