RUBY

source, www.gemfrance.com


source, www.bernardine.com


Asian origins:
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India

Today Myanmar is the most famous source of rubies. Nature embues the finest Myanmaran rubies with a red florescent glow, so that the stone scintillates with fiery life, like a translucent red-hot coal. Gem dealers call the color exhibited by Myanmaran stones "pigeon's-blood red", and large rubies bearing this description sell for million of dollars. While Myanmar is the most well-known of Asia's ruby-producing countries, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Thailand also have long traditions of ruby mining. Thailand become the hub of the world's ruby trade. Most of the rubies from its neighbors pour into the country for processing and trading on the international market.

In 1992, rubies were discovered in northern Vietnam. The main deposits are in Nghe An Province, the poorest, most infertile region of the country, famous for producing tough soldiers and fiery revolutionaries-most notably Ho Chi Minh. Little did the long-suffering residents of the province suspect that their infertile soil held untold riches. When the valuable gems surfaced, they sparked a "ruby rush" in the province, even more fervored than the gold rushes of western US Lore. Thai gems dealers poured into Vietnam to pay cash for the rubies. Vietnamese subsistence farmers, used to earning less than US$ 100 a year, suddenly possessed valuable red stones which they could sell for thousands of dollars each.

source : Tropical Gemstones by Periplus