Ruby Gemstone

A Ruby is a -usually- beautiful gemstone,

sometimes of high value, sometimes of low value, and sometimes a fake stone, very popular in Thailand via heat treatment.

Ruby came until recently mainly from Myanmar - Burma, called Myanmar or Burmese Ruby.

Since the markets slowly dries up, it is almost impossible to get real good rubies from Myanmar - Burma anymore other places come in.

Promising sources are developed in Madagascar by investors from Thailand and elsewhere. Madagascar has a similar situation like Myanmar - Burma, tumbling from one problem into the next for decades.

That means all kind of fortune hunters come  to find some valuable gemstones, not only ruby. Madagascar's soil contains plenty of precious stones and semi precious stones such a ruby, sapphire, emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, garnet rhodolite, tsavorite, peridot, blue and pink Sapphire, tanzanite, tourmaline and other. Quartz, marble, bauxite, fluorine and dolomite are other valuable resources hidden in the deep.

Most of the ruby gem stones in Madagascar

are 'harvested'  by artisianal miners. Since the lack of investment capital in Madagascar is evident due to the political instability -a  small clan with strong connections to France -France is the second most supporter of  Africans looting their country, the first are Arabs like the ones from Saudi Arabia who 

Ruby sapphire pearl at the precious stones emporium in Yangon Myanmar - Burma

That means the real money with all of all kind of  jewelry, like ruby ring, ruby earring, ruby necklace, ruby bracelet, ruby engagement ring, ruby necklace, ruby and diamond ring, pendant, ruby stone, ruby, gem stone, ruby rings, star  ruby, man ruby ring, ruby diamond necklace, ruby jewel, gold ruby ring, ruby bracelets and many other ruby gloom variants, is made outside of Madagascar or Myanmar.

Mogok in central Myanmar

somehow the Ruby Capital of the world is about 120km north of Mandalay and is the main mining area for Myanmar Ruby.

 
Mogok is almost a synonym for ruby, Rubies, gem market, ruby mining, ruby digging, ruby extraction, ruby exploration in Myanmar - Burma.

Beautiful Mogok Lake lies in the centre of town, with a hotel on a silt island and around. The area around the Chanthargyi Pagoda on a small hill provides a great panorama of Mogok Ruby Town, lake and the surrounding hills.
 

The people in Mogok are a showcase of the ethnic minorities in Myanmar - Burma. All kind of tribes like Lisus, Shans, Gurkhas, Kachins, Bamars, Chinese, Shan are there and try to get their share of the 'ruby cake'. Read more on this subject further below.

The best and most valuable ruby gemstones are of "pigeon blood" color, that is a rich red, usually they are mined in Mogok,  Myanmar or Burma.

The word Mogok comes from the Bamar Moegokesetwaing, meaning horizon. In Shan language it means a cold place with early sunset. According to legend, three Shan hunters lost their way in the jungle and as they made camp under a large fig tree, they found many fine rough rubies dislodged by a landslide from a nearby hill.

They gathered many of the ruby stones and took them back to their sawbwa (prince or chief) of Momeik 45 kilometres from Mogok.

The delighted sawbwa ordered a village to be built where the rubies were found called Thaphanbin or fig tree and since that time valuable gems, mainly rubies, have been mined in the area where Mogok now stands.

In 2005 three were over 300,000 people living in the area made up of Lisus, Shans, Gurkhas, Kachins, Bamars, Chinese and Shan, almost all of them make a living from the gemstone business. The town has a number of living examples of the ‘rags to riches’ success story. Some are immensely wealthy.

These lucky ones are no doubt a source of inspiration and act as an incentive to the many  thousands of miners who are hoping to strike it rich. There are over 1,000 mines within an area of approximately 4,864 square kilometres around Mogok.

The soil containing gravel and other substances is mixed with water, conveyed to wooden receptacles containing a series of metal sieves and washed thoroughly with copious amounts of

Ruby searching Mogok Myanmar Burma

Ruby mining open air pit Mogok Myanmar Burma

The two main types are open-cut and tunnel mines. Depending on the size and capital outlay for the mine, the gem bearing soil is dug by machines or manually.

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water. The gravel and other solid matter are then carefully examined and gems are collected.

A ruby's coloring comes from the presence of iron and chromium in the crystals.

Ruby heat treatment is very common with ruby gemstones especially with ruby stones that would not normally be of gem quality. The whole simply means take a low valuable ruby into the oven, apply extreme pressure on it and out of the oven comes a perfect ruby matching the most valuable.

The ruby gemstone heat treatment melts the natural inclusions in a ruby. Means, it you don't see any inclusions its a good indication the the ruby gemstone stone has been heat treated. Ruby have very often flaws and cracks which are hidden with all kind of tricks, by applying special oils, waxes and resins.

Myanmar or Burma ruby stones do fluoresce under ultra-violet light and some top quality rubies will also fluoresce in daylight. A good way to find a synthetic Ruby is their very strong fluorescence.

When rutile needles align in a ruby this can display a six-ray star, known as asterism, a cat's eye effect is also possible in rubies but this is very rare.

Myanmar or Burma "Pigeon blood" red ruby stones are usually the most valuable. Thai rubies usually are Myanmar rubies, either imported from Myanmar or -mostly- smuggled. The main trading place for Myanmar rubies are Bangkok and Chantaburi.

The inclusions ruby gemstone contains can indicate the place where they come from. Myanmar or Burma ruby very often have
inclusions of rutile, olivine and Spinel.

Ancient Hindu's referred to the ruby gemstone as the Lord of Gems and for centuries it has been mixed up Spinel. Red Corundum is called the ruby, other color of Corundum is a Sapphire.

Ruby sorting Mogok Myanmar Burma

Jewelry shops selling ruby gemstone and other gemstones in the usual sense of the word are absent from Mogok. Instead, transactions take place everyday of the week morning and evening in a huge public park. Three-hundred to four-hundred people congregate in Htar park to inspect gems either with the naked eye or by means of pencil-lite torch or lens. Prospective buyers and sellers sit around on the park benches or stand in small groups to conduct their business. Htar means a copper tray - right picture- it is the main form to display the ruby and this name for a trade in gems originated many years ago when stones were displayed in copper trays.