Part 1: ( Present Page)
Ruby, Sapphire, Moonstone, Spinels, Tsavorite, Alexandrite:
Gems from central and south Tanzania
Part 2: ( Visit the Part 2)
Tsavorite, Tanzanite, Chrome Tourmaline, Emerald and Alexandrites:
Gems from the Massai Land (North Tanzania)
Texts
by
Vincent Pardieu (Gubelin
Gem Lab, Lucerne, Switzerland)
Photos and maps by:
Vincent Pardieu, Mike Rogers, Guillaume Soubiraa, Richard W. Hughes.
(This temporary page was updated
on July 20, 2008)
This
expedition, even if it
was privately conducted
during my holidays and
financed by the authors,
was supported by the Gubelin
Gem Lab located in
Lucerne, Switzerland,
where I'm working as gemologist
at the time of the expedition.
Gemstone
mining in East Africa does not
have the long history like gemstones
mining in Central Asia (Afghanistan),
South East Asia (Burma) and South
Asia (Sri Lanka) but during the
last few decades countries located
on the East African Mozambique
Belt like Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique
and Madagascar have become important
gemstone producers and several
of its gem deposit of significant
economic and gemological importance
are poorly known.
During my first visit in Tanzania
with Jean Baptiste Senoble in
August
2005 we faced several problems:
Tanzania was the last visit on
our four months gemological traveling
schedule: We were tired and less
healthy than when we started our
expedition in Vietnam and we were
running short in time for such
a large country. Nevertheless
in 20 days we were able to visit
most of the areas we planed to
visit: Longido (ruby), Merelani
(Tanzanite), Lemshuko-Komolo (Tsavorite),
Umba (sapphire, garnet, tsavorite),
Morogoro with Matombo (ruby, spinel)
and Mahenge (ruby, spinel), Songea
(sapphire), Tunduru (ruby, sapphire.
spinel, garnet, diamond, tsavorite,chrysoberyl,
alexandrite,...) but in Umba the
visit turned to be difficult as
for 5 days I was down with a bad
malaria, later in Songea Jean
Baptiste suffered a serious food
poisoning and then in Tunduru
we were harassed by the local
immigration officers which main
focus was to find a way to get
as much dollars as they could
from us. After 2 days of serious
harassment, we decided to leave
the area in order not to finish
our 4 month gemological expedition
with a visit to the local Tunduru
jail.
Returning
home after that visit I was dreaming
to come back in order to complete
my work regarding sapphires and
rubies from Songea and Tunduru
as very few was written about
them in the gemological literature.
When
Richard W.Hughes asked me to help
him for a visit to visit Tanzania
in order to collect data for a
future update of his book: "Ruby
and Sapphire", I immediately
asked three weeks of holidays
from the Gubelin Gem Lab where
I'm an employee, and started to
save some money for this private
expedition. On the following map you can place the different Tanzanian (and Kenyan) gem mining areas we visited during our recent gemological expeditions during Summer 2005, October 2007 or April 2008 (to be published in the future):
(General Kenya and Tanzania map presenting Vincent Pardieu's 2005, 2007 and 2008
gemological expeditions. Map courtesy (and slightly modified) from R.W. Hughes, 2008
This
expedition came at the right time
as the end of 2007 was very exciting
in Tanzania as three serious gem
rushes occurred: Giant spinel
crystals were found in Mahenge
in August, and in november 2007,
interesting spessartine garnets
were found near the Serengueti
national Park and very fine rubies
and pink sapphire were found near
Dodoma creating some noticeable
gem rushes.
We
arrived in Tanzania on October
06 2007 after a four days visit
to the Tsavo ruby and tsavorite
mining area in Kenya. Arusha gem
market was of course very excited
about the new red spinels which
were told to have been cut from
four giants crystals of about
50, 30, 20 and 9 kg found in August.
Most of these crystals were told
us not to be gem quality and only
a thin outside layer was gem quality..
Sadly we could not see these big
crystals which were rapidly broken
is smaller pieces for security
reasons in order to be more easily
transported and cut. These spinels
were recently noticed at the April
2008 Basel gem fair:
( Large faceted "Mahenge Spinels" associated with small Mahenge rough.
Stone courtesy: Paul Wild, Idar Oberstein, Germany, Photo: V.Pardieu/Gubelin Gem Lab, 2008)
We left Arusha for Morogoro on
October 07. The Morogoro region
became famous after the discovery
on a ruby and spinel deposit near
the village of Matombo in the
East of Morogoro town in 1986.
We visited Matombo in 2005 and
were reported during this second
visit in October 2007 that there
was no mining there at that time.
On October 8th we
visited the local mining
officer to get his support
to visit the Morogoro
province mining areas,
visited an interesting
workshop managed by
Spiro, a greek gem dealer
who presented us an
interesting update of
Tanzania past and current
gem production a nice
visit which was a interesting
start for us.
After
this visit we took the road to
Gongoni, near Kilosa to visit
a moonstone mine worked by "AAK
Brothers Co Ltd". "Moonstone"
was reported to have been discovered
there in 2000 and the mine produced
a lot of "moonstone"
material from Sept 2003 to October
2006. I say "moonstone"
as some gemologist believe that
the word "peristerite"
is more appropriate as this adularescent
feldspar material is not orthoclase
with thin layers of albite like
for the traditional moonstones
from Sri Lanka or Burma but albite
with thin layers of orthoclase.
If peristerite is possibly more
scientifically correct it is for
sure less romantic.. The name
controversy was not anymore a
discussion subject among us when
we arrived at the mine as we found
it lifeless with only few guards
to watch the mining equipment
left behind and the large empty
hole.
We were told that the miners moved
to mine spinels in Mahenge. We
did not returned to Morogoro empty
handed as speaking to the guard
we heard that about 200 people
were mining the river banks for
sapphires the river down the hill
were the "moonstone"
mine was located. After a short
walk we could visit this alluvial
mining area where low quality
colorless "corundum sapphire"
was mined.
I say "corundum sapphire"
as I prefer to use the word sapphire
only for the gem quality of the
mineral corundum and it is a fact
that we did not saw any gem material
at Mbuyuni. The system at this
alluvial corundum mine was interesting:
The mine production was sold by
the owner to an Indian dealer
in Dar Es Salaam, which would
heat the stones and dyed them,
probably to make beads for the
Jaipur market. All the miners
working in the area had to sell
the stone to the owner of the
mine for 12.000 shilling (about
$10) per kilo. The miners we met
were mostly farmers. They were
working there as at that time
there was not much work in their
farm. Peter Chelwa a miner / farmer
from Mbuyini village told us that
"to get a little bit of cash
mining here was better than staying
at home doing nothing". Peter
Chelwa told us that in this area
a team of 3 to 4 miners had to
dig from about 3 to 5 days to
get to the gem bearing gravels,
they had then to wash the gravels
to collect the corundum sapphires.
Sometimes there were many stones
sometimes there was no stones.
But as an average a miner was
able to expect to make about 15.000
per week, about $2 per day. It
seems low for people working in
New York, London or Tokyo reading
this page but the Tanzanian miners
told us it was good money for
them as their farms were poor
and this little cash was a very
welcome income during the dry
period when there was not much
to do.
A short video showing a 360 degres view from the central area of the remote corundum mining area we visited that day.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
Another short video showing a deep mining pit in which the ingenious miners built a small washing pond... A good way to save energy.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
On October 9th we left Morogoro
early in the morning with Mr Bakari
Shemsanga, a mining technician
from the Morogoro mining office,
for a long drive to Mahenge. It
is was a nice drive passing through
the Mikumi and Udzungwa national
parks which enabled us to enjoy
the sight of elephants, antelopes,
buffaloes, giraffes or monkeys.
It was also interesting to meet
local gem dealers traveling on
motorbikes from Mahenge to Morogoro
or Dar, a very common practice
in Mahenge where motorbikes and
cell phones are the key elements
of the local gem trade: For security
reasons there is no gem market
in mahenge as in older mining
areas like Mogok in Burma.
Arriving
in Mahenge, a small misty mountain
city known in Tanzania to produce
good quality beans and rice, we
went to meet the authorities to
get their support in our project
to visit the mines and went around
the town to visit several mine
owners in order to plan the following
day visits.
On October 10th we started our
day driving south in the direction
of the Lukande ruby mining area,
a place close to the famous Selous
game reserve, we visited already
in 2005.
On the way we passed near the
Kitonga ruby mining area which
produced cabochon quality rubies
from 1988 to 1993, small scale
mining involving possibly 3 to
5 miners was reported to be still
present in the area.
We passed then near the Mbangayao
mountain which is currently a
game reserve. It was also reported
us to have produced some cabochon
quality rubies in the 1990's.
We continued our way passing Mbarabanga
the ruby and color change spinel
mining area we visited in 2005.
We had this time no time to visit
again the area but we were reported
that gem mining was still present
there with possibly between 30
to 50 miners.
Finally we reached the Lukande
mining area which was very active
from 1986 to 1992 when Thai people
were mining at the "Simba"
mine. Tanzanian miners told us
that the mine closed due to riots.
It seems that the Thais killed
a Tanzanian thief, then the Thai
camp was attacked by a mob of
angry Tanzanian miners and 3 people
were reported to have been killed
during these events. The Thai
miners left then the area to start
working in Songea which was just
discovered.
We also heard another story about
how ruby mining started in the
area: It seems that a local hunter
Mr Gutapak found a big red stone
on the ground in 1989. He bring
the stone to a villager called
Mr Mash who registered the whole
area and started mining, the hunter
became a security guard. The mine
became later from 1990 to 1994
a joint venture with Khun Tom,
a Thai national and became known
as the "Tom mine". In
1994 mining stopped as the miners
moved to the new Tunduru deposit.
Currently small scale
mining is still present
in both Lukande, Mayote
and Chipa with about
20 miners in each area
During this first visit
we met there people
mining an alluvial placer
but the visit on October
10th 2007 was very interesting
as we could that time
visit a group of miners
working a primary deposit
on a hill side. The
rubies were found in
marble associated with
mica. Walter Balmer
a Swiss gemologist who
visited also recently
the area confirmed to
me that Mayote and Chipa,
the two neighboring
areas producing also
rubies, pink sapphires
and blue spinels, are
also primary deposits
with elluvial/alluvial
placers.
We left Lukande around lunch time
to drive to the Ipanko ruby and
spinel mining area. The Ipanko
area was of course one of the
highlight of our expedition as
it was the place where several
giant spinel crystals were found
during August 2007. We were reported
that four giant crystals weighting
52, 28, around 20kg and 5.7kg
were mined there all from the
same box known as the "Joel
box".
The crystals were reported to
us to be mostly low quality in
their center but the outside part
of the stones were gem quality
and some stunning clean pinkish
to red stones from 10 to nearly
50 carats were cut from them.
A parure composed of 15 Mahenge
spinels was one of the main discussion
subject at the recent Basel fair
in March 2008.
Here is one of the
stones cut from those
giant crystals. The
stone hold by ICA Ambassador
to Tanzania Eric Saul
weighted about 12 carats
and was pinkish red.
Larger stones cut from
the same crystals were
more red as saturation
increase with the size.
During our visit on
October 10th we could
witness some mining
in the location were
the large crystals were
found. A company named
"Interstate Mining
& Mineral Tanzania
Ltd" was working
the boxes were in 2005
several small groups
of miners were working.
We visited also the
spinel hard rock mining
area just nearby where
spinels are mined from
marbles in association
with blue apatite and
clinohumite.
A short video showing the mining activity we witnessed during our visit in October 2007 at the exact location where the giant spinel crystals were discovered at Ipanko spinel mines in August 2007.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
Near the place were
the giant crystals were
found a hard rock spinel
mine is found. On the
right spinel miner Benjamin
Makoti present us some
of the spinels he took
from the marbles. In
that mine, spinels are
associated with clinohumite
and blue apatite.
A short video showing the mining activity we witnessed during our visit in October 2007 at the Ipanko hard rock spinel mines located just few meters from the place where the giant spinel crystals were found 2 months before our visit..
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
It
seems few days after our visit
mining stopped at Ipanko due to
a conflict about the mining rights.
We were reported that as a result
of these difficulties in November
and December 2007 many miners
left Mahenge to go to the new
spessartine deposit near the Serengeti
and to the new "ruby rush"
near Mpwapwa.
On
October 11th we left Mahenge about
5am very for a long drive to arrive
about 9pm in Songea. Songea is
a known in Tanzania for its coffee
and tobacco plantations. In Songea
we started our visit with the
office of the region mining officer
to get his support in our project
to visit the sapphire mines near
Kitai. Gem mining in Songea mainly
take place near the villages of
Ngembambili and Masuguro we visited
on October 12 and 13. On the other
hand gem trading takes mostly
place in downtown Songea where
about 10 Thai buying offices are
present. Thai buyers are usually
about two per office working here
with a 3 months business visa.
African dealers buy the stones
from the miners at Masuguro and
Ngembambili and travel then to
Songea to sell the stones to the
Thais. Foreigners are usually
not welcome at the mines as the
African dealers are afraid that
they will try to bypass them and
buy directly from the miners.
About 150 African traders are
the link between the 2000 people
living at the mines and the 20
to 30 Thai buyers. 50 of them,
the "town brokers" live
in Songea and travel daily to
the mines while about 150 smaller
brokers called the "bush
brokers" live and work at
the mines with the miners and
work in fact for the "town
brokers". Compared to our
last visit in 2005 it seems that
the number of miners went down
in Songea region. The local people
told us that it was mainly due
to the fact that the Thais are
not anymore paying as much as
in the past for the stones. The
local African complain that the
Thais are working like a syndicate
to control the prices while the
Thais complain that the market
for Songea material is bad as
most of these stones have to be
treated with beryllium in order
to be sold and the current prices
of Songea beryllium treated sapphires
in the world market are very low
and many Thai dealers had to stop
buying.
A gem broker
is waiting for stones
to buy in Songea Ngembambili.
A short video showing the mining activity we witnessed during our visit in October 2007 at the Ngemba Ngembambili mining area near Songea..
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
A short video showing enthousiastic gemologist Mike Rogers visiting one of the Songea mining pits. Mike here give us a demonstration of the Songea way to return from the deep of a mining pit...
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
At Ngemba Ngembambili,
Mine manager Joseph
Mdomba is presenting
us some of the stones
produced by his mine.
We were told by local miners that
the Songea mining area was discovered
in 1991 when a local farmer gave
some stones he found in his rice
field to Songea town Indian and
Arab rice dealers who later sold
these stones to Thai gem dealers
in Dar Es Salaam. In 1992 the
first Thai gemstone buying office
opened in Songea and mining was
high until the discovery of the
Tunduru sapphire and chrysoberyl
deposit in 1994. From 1994 to
1999, when the Thai and Sri lankan
buyers left Tunduru to buy gems
in the new sapphire deposit in
Ilakaka (Madagascar) mining was
very low in Songea. In 1999 some
of the people who left for Tunduru
returned to Songea and with the
discovery of the potential of
"beryllium heat treatment
" for Songea sapphire, the
Thai buyers returned massively
in Songea in 2002, the miners
said that the prices given by
the Thais were then good and more
than 6000 miners were working
in Ngembambili, now there is less
than 3000 miners in all the area,
as many people moved to other
business.
In my experience, after 4 years
traveling regularly to many mining
areas in Asia and Africa, I would
say that this is quite typical:
Typically people start as miners,
if they get lucky to get some
good stones they get enough money
to become a broker, some dealers
will then spend this money buying
cars, houses, cell phones while
the wisest often invest their
money in other business and rapidly
focus on their new activities.
Very few miners and dealers seems
to invest back in mining as it
is a hard work and a difficult
business depending a lot about
luck: If it is possible to get
rich rapidly in the gem business
thanks to good luck it is possible
also to get poor or even worse
also as rapidly. I call that the
"gem casino".
In 2005 we mainly focused our
visit on the Masuguro area where
two mechanized companies, one
"Thanistar Mining Co Ltd"
is run by Mr Prayun, a famous
Thai miner who worked before in
Lukande near Mahenge, the other
"World Gem Supply" is
run by an Australian: Brad Mitchell.
Visiting "Thanistar"
on October 13th we were told that
the company was not currently
producing gems as it was moving
its mining operation 6 km north
of their current location we visited
already in 2005.
On this 2007 expedition I decided
to focus on the Ngemgambili mining
area we could not visit in 2005
as we were getting short in time
after my 5 days suffering from
malaria in Umba and due to the
fact that we lost one day in Songea
as Jean Baptiste Senoble, then
he suffered from a serious food
poisoning.
This visit was very interesting
as we visited two very different
mining areas at "Ngembambili
Amanimakoro" and at "Ngemba
Ngembambili":
We visited several small scale
mining operations at Ngemgambili
and we could learn about the different
economic systems operating there:
In one mine we were explained
that the mining licence and land
owner was providing tools and
food to the miners, the miners
were then getting 25% of the money
from the selling of the stones
while the mine owner was keeping
75%.
In another mine the mine owner
was not providing food or tools
and as a result he was just getting
25% of the income from the mine
while the miners were getting
75% but had to feed themselves
and buy their mining tools.
Finally we heard about another
mine where the mine owner was
getting 30%, then a business sponsor
(usually a "town broker"
or a Thai dealer) was providing
food and tools to the miners in
exchange of 30% of the mine income
and Finally the miners were getting
40% of the result of the selling
of the gems.
The visit was also very interesting
as we could see that in "Ngemba
Ngembambili" the miners were
mining an alluvial deposit, which
is the typical mining deposit
in Songea area: Sapphires are
found as slightly rounded pebbles
from a gravel layer, the stones
are usually clean with few fissures.
A short video showing the mining activity in a swamp area at Ngembambili near Songea. The sapphires are here collected from the gem rich ground using simple tools. The ground collected is then taken to the washing area nearby. Hard work...
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
A short video showing the gem washing activity in the swampy area near Ngembambili mining area near Songea, Tanzania... Gems are collected after washing the gem rich ground collected nearby.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
In
"Ngembambili Amanimakoro"
the sapphires are not find in
a gravel layers but in veins associated
with schorl from a white kaolin
like weathered body. The sapphires
which can be purplish to green
or yellowish are usually surrounded
what looks to be a mica like crust.
Fractures are very common is common
in this material which for the
rest is similar to the stones
found at "Ngmeba Ngembambili".
It seems then that if the deposit
worked at "Ngemba Ngembambili"
is a secondary deposit, the deposit
at "Ngembambili Amanimakoro"
seems to be a weathered primary
deposit.
On
October 13th in the afternoon
we left from a 5 hours drive to
Tunduru which was for Richard
W.Hughes and myself the main objective
for this expedition. On the way
from Songea to Tunduru we passed
near Namtumbo which produce some
aquamarines.
Tunduru is a small city which
main business is cashew nut plantations,
the area is also famous for its
tse tse flies and its man eating
lions. This last fact reminds
us another area famous for its
man eaters: Tsavo in Kenya we
visited few days before.. It is
quite interesting to see that
rubies and sapphires are again
found in some of the wildest and
less man friendly areas of planet
Earth.
Gem
mining started in Tunduru in 1994,
Gem dealer Werner Spaltenstein,
known as "Malapa" told
me that in 1994 we was buying
gems in Songea when he was presented
a yellow gem he identified as
chrysoberyl. He gave to the owner
a good price asking him where
the stone was from: Tunduru..
He provided then to the owner
of the gem some money in order
to go mining there. Soon Tunduru
became one of the most active
gem mining areas in Tanzanian
with (possibly..) around 50.000
to 100.000 people living from
the gem trade: mining, selling,
buying or supplying the miners
at Tunduru highest in 1995 and
1996 as many foreign buyers and
investors came to Tunduru to buy
sapphires, rubies, alexandrites
and chrysoberyls. But we were
told that some Tanzanian officials
created then many problems to
the investors and the foreign
buyers putting restrictions to
the use of machinery or blocking
them waiting for bribes. Foreigners
were also harassed by the local
immigration and were concern about
security in Tunduru remote areas.
It was during that period than
a daring man eating lion terrorized
Tunduru killing more than 30 people
within 2 or 3 months. It was incredible
to hear that the man in charge
of hunting the man eater was also
killed by the beast one night
near his house downtown Tunduru
about 100 meters from the guest
house we were staying.. In 1999
after the discovery of Ilakaka
in Madagascar nearly all the buyers
deserted Tunduru and its difficulties
within few months for Madagascar
leaving all the local miners and
brokers without any market for
their gems. Most of the miners
returned then to their farms or
went working to other mining areas
like Ruangwa where Tsavorite was
found, some miners also returned
to their home in area like Mahenge
with some knowledge about the
value of gems like spinels.
Currently gem mining is found
in a wide area around Tunduru
from the Selous Game reserve in
the north to the Ruvuma river
in the south which is also the
natural border with Mozambique.
We could also see that most of
the mining is performed in the
east of the Tunduru along the
Muhuwesi, the Mtetesi, the Lumesule,
the Mbwenkuru and the Ruvuma rivers.
All the mining areas we visited
in 2005 and 2007 were alluvial
mining areas. We never heard about
any area where gems were taken
from a primary deposits, but several
people including the Tunduru mining
officer were believing that the
gems mined around Tunduru could
origin from the Muhuwesi hills
located on the north of Tunduru
in the south of the Selous Game
Reserve which is the origin of
the gem bearing rivers in Tunduru
area. But this is far to be confirmed.
Mining in Tunduru is very different
depending the seasons: When we
visited the area in August 2005
the water level in the rivers
was still high and we could visit
"land mines" where people
were mining few hundred meters
from the river Muhuwesi to collect
gem gravels which were then taken
to the river to be washed in order
to collect the stones. This type
of mining is typical of the wet
season mining. In October 2007
we could see that mining was mostly
taking place in the dry bed of
the river which level was then
very low.
In Tunduru the wet season goes
from December to July, most of
the people are then involved in
farming rice, corn or vegetables.
Few teams of professional miners
are then mining in the land, but
it is quite a dangerous work as
the ground is not dry enough:
mine pits and tunnels can collapse
and the miners risk to be buried
alive. During the dry season the
main activity in Tunduru region
is cashew nut farming and gem
mining: As soon as the rains stop,
typically from August to September
, the work force is busy with
the work at the cashew nut plantations,
for mining the highest period
is then during the dry months
of October and November until
the return of the rains which
means that Tunduru people will
start again to work in their farms.
The gem trade in Tunduru is also
quite organized: Foreign buyers
are present in Tunduru. They are
not allowed to go to buy gems
at the mines of to the local Tanzanian
trading center at Maji Maji. In
October 2007 we could see that
ten Sri Lankan , two Thai and
three local Tanzanian gem buying
offices were open downtown Tunduru.
At Maji Maji, a small village
one hour driving in the direction
of Masasi in the East we visited
several times on our way to the
mines, we were told that around
70 brokers were operating. 52
brokers were members of the "Maji
Maji Mining Group", the local
Tanzanian gem trader association
and 20 were operating outside
this association.
As Maji maji is located between
the Muhuwesi and the Lumesule
river it is a convenient spot
for the local miners to sell their
production. The Maji Maji gem
traders will then sort the gemstones
and create some parcels. We were
told by several brokers that an
average gem broker working with
sapphires could collect about
500 grams of sapphires in 1 to
3 months. The gems are then typically
sold to the Tunduru foreign buyers
or to visiting buyers like the
famous "Malapa", a Swiss
gem buyer we could meet during
a buying expedition in Tunduru
in 2005.
We could see during our visit
that Tunduru produce a wide variety
of gemstones chrysoberyl ( including
its Alexandrite color changing
variety), sapphire (blue, purple,
yellow and pink), ruby, topaz,
quartz, garnet (including tsavorite),
spinel, and also diamonds diamonds
as we could witness in 2005
During our visit in Tunduru area
on October 14 we visited first
the office of the local mining
officer then we left to river
Muhuwesi, which was the river
where mining started in 1994.
We visited several mining operations
at spot number 8 and spot number
2. As it was the dry season we
could see how gem mining was performed
in the river: First a small dam
is commonly build in order create
a dry area in the river bed, then
workers are digging in the sand
in order to reach the gem gem
bearing gravels. This operation
can take about one week. In order
to avoid the return of the water
in the mining hole it is necessary
to use a pomp. The gravels collected
are then washed and the gem was
collected. Most of the time the
miners which are farmers during
the rest of the year do not own
the necessary tools to work such
river mines. The mining capital
including the pumps, the gas,
the food and the mining tools
are provided by a sponsor which
is commonly Sri Lankan and the
system was then similar to what
we saw in Songea.
A short video showing the mining activity on the river banks of the Muhuwesi river near Tunduru in Tanzania: While monkeys are playing in the trees, gem miners are working the river bed collecting sapphires, alexandrites and sometimes also diamonds.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
A short video showing the mining activity in
during the dry season on the Muhuwesi river near tunduru: As the level of the Muhuwesi river is low gem miners built small dam to keep some part of the river dry and mine it...
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
River mining at Muhuwesi
river can be a very
difficult work, to reach
the gem bearing gravels
it is sometimes necessary
to break large rocks
and even then the mine
production can be very
weak.
47 years old gem miner
Joseph Mayunga present
to Richard W.Hughes
an old "Gem and
Gemology" magazine
which was given to him
by a Sri Lankan dealer
after a succesful chrysoberyl
business. He was living
and mining at Muhuwesi
river for more than
7 years.
Young American gemologist
Warne Chitty, from Aspen,
Colorado recently graduated
from GIA. He was studying
now his FGA but he took
a break to come with
us and his father on
the field in Tanzania.
It was a real pleasure
to have him around.
On
October 15th we took the road
to the Ruvuma river and the Mozambique
border to witness the gem mining
area. Traveling was long as we
had to drive more than 2 hours
through the bush infested of tse
tse flies.
Tsetse are large biting
flies from Africa which
live by feeding on the
blood of vertebrate
animals. They are infamous
to be the biological
vectors of the African
trypanosomiases, deadly
diseases that include
sleeping sickness in
people and nagana in
cattle.
We killed about 10
of them on the way to
the Ruvuma river as
they found a way to
enter our cars.
We reached then Mbuyuni village
which was reported to us to be
the main local gem trading center
on the Mozambique border. We could
see several small gem trading
huts but very few where occupied
by gem buyers. Going a little
bit down the river we could find
a small gem mining operation where
about six miners were working.
We could see and buy the mine
production composed of the same
mix of gemstones we saw the day
before on the Muhuwesi river except
that the stones were looking smaller
and more tumbled, meaning possibly
that we could be then farther
from the origin of the gems.
A short video showing the mining activity on the river banks of the Ruvuma river, the natural border between Tanzania and Mozambique: A group of miners is mining for alluvial rubies, sapphires, alexandrites and diamonds... while gemologist Richard W. Hughes is fighting against nasty flies.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
On the way back from Mbuyuni we
stopped at Maji Maji to witness
the local Tanzanian gem trade
and enjoy a fresh beer!
On october 16 we left Tunduru
again very early to visit mining
areas on river Lumesule. Our main
objectives were the areas known
as "D.S.M. Box" and
Kitowelo. It seems that gems were
first discovered there in 1995
by a local fisherman, about one
year after the gem discoveries
in river Muhuwesi. We were told
that the "DSM box" area
on river Lumesule was one of the
most active Tunduru gem mining
localities from 1995 to 1998 with
around 10.000 miners. At the time
of our visit this very remote
mining area was looking like a
small village with about 100 huts
in which may be 300 miners were
living. DSM Box was the only place
we got some problems during our
2007 expedition. Few minutes after
our arrival the people wanted
to collect from us a special tax
that the foreign visitors had
to pay, after few minutes after
we explained the village elders
the reasons of our visit and the
elder decided that it was not
necessary for us to pay the tax.
We went then to visit some mines
in the Lumesule river bed and
also a "land mine" about
300 meters from the river. Returning
to our cars we had the surprise
to be surrounded by a mob of angry
people lead by a young miner willing
to collect the special tax from
us. They had stones in hands and
wood sticks and after few tense
minutes we decided to pay the
tax in order to leave safely.
A short video showing the gem washing activity in the Lumesule river near the DSM box mining village.
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
We then went to Kitowelo which
is known to be the place where
Tunduru biggest blue sapphires
and alexandrites were mined. We
heard about gem quality blue sapphires
up to 30 carats and about an alexandrite
weighting 36 grams rough. Kitowelo
mining area was also reported
to have been discovered in 1995.
We were also told that from 1995
to the beginning of October 2007
a large Thai operation with machines
was present, but few days before
our visit, Mr Prayun, the Thai
miner who is also mining in Songea
moved his equipment to his new
mining project in Masuguro, Songea.
The number of miners went then
within few days from about 300
to about 100 people.
After visiting Kitowelo we drove
to Masasi where we arrived late
in the evening.
On
October 17th we drove to Ruangwa
in order to visit the Tsavorite
mines. The first stones were discovered
in the first months of 1999 by
a local hunter on Namumgo hill
about 20 km from Ruangwa city
which economy is dominated by
cashew nut farming. It became
rapidly an important mining area
as after the discovery of Ilakaka
in Madagascar, many Tunduru miners
were without market for their
stones and many moved to mine
tsavorite in Ruangwa. At Ruangwa
Tsavorite mining is underground,
it is performed using methods
that are also present in Merelani.
many miners in Ruangwa are former
merelani miners and they imported
there the mining techniques they
learned to mine Tanzanite. At
Ruangwa the mining tunnels are
less deep than in Merelani, the
deepest being about 200 meters
deep, the reason given to us was
that the mining in Ruangwa is
more recent than in Merelani.
We were told that about 30 mining
tunnels were dig in Namumgu hill
and about 300 miners were currently
working there which is much less
compared to years 1999 and 2000:
At that time more than 1000 miners
were told us to have been working
there.
A view over Namungo hill, the Ruangwa tsavorite mining area.
A short video presenting a 360 degres view from the entrance of the Ruangwa mining pit we visited: The area was pretty wild with no fence. The mine entrance was just a hole covered with a small roof located few hundred meters from the miners village located on the other hill..
Video: Vincent Pardieu.
Of course it was difficult to resist to visit the mines and witness the work underground. We went then to visit a typical mining operation from "Gemini Exploration and Mining Services", a Dar Es Salaam based company. The mine was starting by a vertical 20 meter pit, we went down using a wooden ladder with a torch light attached on our heads.
In the mine, several galleries about 1 to 2 meters high and about 4 meters wide were going slightly down. We had to walk about 150 meters underground to reach the place where a team of about 50 miners was working:
The work was
hard and the miners were very
surprised to see a group of foreigners
arriving in the place they were
working, we were surprised by
their warm welcome: The mine was
noisy with "Musungu Gwaka happa... Musungu Gwaka happa" meaning "White men are here!". They were very proud to show us about their work, showing us the areas where they were believing to get good stones. It was difficult for us to understand anything among such a noisy crowd about 150 meters underground. But it was fine.
A short video to remember the activity in the deep of Ruangwa tsavorite mine: The unexpected arrival of a group of western gemologists was welcome by the miners with a tremendous excitement. Quite impressive as we were soon in the center of a noisy crowd: It turned to be fine and just great!
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