Important Note: The author: Vincent Pardieu is an employee of GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Laboratory Bangkok since Dec 2008. Any views expressed on this website - and in particular any views expressed by Vincent Pardieu - are the authors' opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GIA or GIA Laboratory Bangkok . GIA takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content on this website nor is GIA liable for any mistakes or omissions you may encounter. GIA is in particular not screening, editing or monitoring the content on this website and has no possibility to remove, screen or edit any content.
We are gemologists (gemmologists) sharing a passion for gemstones, gemolology (gemmology), gem people and traveling.
You will find in this website gemological expedition reports and some studies of gemological interest.
Visiting many gem mining areas we saw that people in remote mining and trading areas have difficulties to access to gemological publications. As today the Internet can be accessed in most of these gem mining areas and trading centers, the author started to build this website to give gem people living there the opportunity to see the result of the gemological expeditions they were associated in. It is a way to thanks them for their time and collaboration and to help them to get access to more gemological information.
At the same time the author hope that these expedition reports will please the people from consuming countries interested in gemstones and fascinated by their mysterious origins. Our purpose here is to help people facing difficulties to get quality first hand information about gems and their origins to get the information they need through this website and its links.
With our field expeditions to gemstone mines and gem markets around the world, we intend also here to share our passion for photography, gems and our fascination for the work of the "Gem People" bringing gemstones from the ground to magnificent jewelry.
From the gems external beauty to the intimate beauty of gemstone inclusions, from gem lore to the mines, the people and the landscapes gems origin from, we expect to share with you our passion for gemstone beauty.
We also invite you to join us on some gemological forums we are active in as they are convenient tools to get rapid answers to your questions as they are regularly visited by many other passionate gemologists, jewelers, hobbyists and professionals willing to learn more and share their knowledge about gemstones.
Website Map
Index page: Vincent Pardieu's Blog
About the Author
About me : How did a countryside Frenchman became a "Shameless travel addicted gemologist"? ( Under construction)
October 2007: Gemological expedition to East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) with Richard W. Hughes, Mike Rogers, Guillaume Soubiraa, Warne and Monty Chitty and Philippe Bruno:
Sep. 2005: Madagascar with Richard W. Hughes and Dana Schorr (Will be available one of these days...)
Summer 2005: Gemological expeditions to South East Asia (Vietnam) South Asia (Sri Lanka) and East Africa (Kenya, Madagascar and Tanzania) with J.B. Senoble and Tanguy Lagache with the support of the AIGS, the ICA and the Gubelin Gem Lab:
- Introduction to AIGS/ICA/Gubelin Gem lab 2005 Expeditions
Special THANKS for their support for our field expeditions since 2005:
Any QUESTIONS?
about gems, gemology, field expeditions, studying gemology, minerals, jade, pearls or jewelry? We recommend these FORUMS where the author is contributing:
Do you want to STUDY GEMOLOGY?
Here are some recommended institutes where the author studied gemology in Thailand ... and was happy about his investment!
For those willing to go further after their gemological studies: Recommended Advanced Gemological Courses:
To finish here are some BOOKS about gemology the author have read and appreciated and would like to recommend to people willing to learn more about gemstones, gemology and the places where gemstones are found:
GIA FE08 (GIA Laboratory Bangkok Field Expedition 08): May. 15 - Jun. 10, 2009: Vietnam
After our FE02 expedition to Vietnam in Jan 2009, we had now all the contacts and were able to make all the arrangements in order to be able to conduct a complete survey of Vietnam mining areas. This project was done in collaboration with:
- Dr. Pham Van Long, a well known Vietnamese geologist and gemologist working as Director of the "VGC Center for Gem and Gold Research and Identification" in Hanoi. This is the Vietnamese official gemological laboratory which also delivers all the necessary paperwork to export legally gemstones from Vietnam.
- Mr. Hoc, my old friend, a local French speaking Vietnamese tour guide working for Viet-Y. I was working with Hoc while visiting Vietnam during the 1990's when I was working as a tour guide in Vietnam for FRAM, a major French Tour Operator.
To help me in this expedition were several friends, all experienced travelers: Jean Baptiste Senoble (from France, in charge of photography and sourcing), Kham Vannaxay (from France, video and translation as he speaks Vietnamese), David Bright (from USA, in charge of GPS recording and photography) and Lou Pierre Bryl (Canada, in charge of photography and accounting). Note: as usual, all the team members were financing their own traveling costs and their part of the common costs in this join expedition.
Our program was to visit first the ruby and spinel mining areas in North Vietnam in the Yen Bai and Nghe An provinces and also a pearl farming operation in Ha Long Bay and an experimental farm in Hanoi. Then we were planning to visit the blue sapphire deposits in the south of the country located in the Highlands region north of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).
"The Hanoi Opera and the Vietnam 2009 team"
Posing in front of the beautiful Hanoi opera, one of the author's favorite French colonial style buildings, which color harmony was an inspiration for the design of this website third version, are the member of the author's team for that 8th expedition for the GIA Laboratory Bangkok: Left to right: Lou Pierre Bryl (Canada), Jean Baptiste Senoble (France), David Bright (USA) and Kham Vannaxay (France)"
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009
After a short stay in Hanoi to arrange all the expedition details, the first part of our expedition for the GIA Laboratory Bangkok was to visit the Yen Bai area with the Tan Huong and Thac Ba Lake ruby and spinel mining areas. Sadly due to the heavy rains of the previous week all mining stopped as the water level was high. We then left to Truc Lau (ruby and spinel) and then Yen The, the main city of the famous Luc Yen district of the Yen Bai province. If our first day in Yen The was rainy and thus spent to visit the local gem market and the different town dealers, the following days were blessed by a sunny weather which enable us to visit all the mining areas we planned to visit. That was wonderful as the author was not able to visit them as he wanted in 2005 and Jan. 2009 due to the weather conditions: We first visited on May 19th the Bai Chuoi and Khoan Thong mining areas which were the places were the Thais and VIGECO were mining with machinery during the 1990's. Then on May 20's we moved to the An Phu area to visit the Cung Truoi 2 and 3 (Note: "Cung Truoi" means "the Sky Gate" it is a high marble cliff which is divided in three areas: Cung Truoi 1, 2 and 3) ruby and spinel mining areas in a failed attempt to visit the May Thuong ruby mining area (Note: "May Thuong" means "the high clouds" as this is one of Vietnam most remote and difficult to access ruby mines). The expedition was very difficult due to the jungle covered karst type terrain where we had literally to jump from marble pinnacle to marble pinnacle risking at each step a serious wound if we put our feets in the wrong place. The following day, using a different guide and path we visited the Cung Truoi 1 red spinel mining area and finally, after another very hard walk in the karst type cliff, we succeeded to visit the May Thuong ruby mining area which is producing most of the ruby in matrix specimens seen in Luc Yen region markets. Then on May 22, we went on the track of Vietnam fabulous blue spinels and were able to visit the main deposits in Bai Son and Co Ngan after another hard walking day in the jungle covered mountains. After these great four days hiking Luc Yen region scenic but deadly mountains we returned to Hanoi exhausted but really happy...
"An incredible blue spinel from Vietnam"
Here is what we were looking for regarding Vietnam spinels: An incredible small neon blue spinel with a very high saturation and nearly no tone... A pure little blue "Jedi" spinel far away from the "dark side of the force".
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009
Back in Hanoi we got prepared for the second part of our expedition which was about pearls: We first visited a cultured pearl farm producing "akoya" type pearls from "pinctada fucata" oysters on Ha Long bay and its hatchery located nearby. The visit was interesting as we could witness on the Bay the grafting process. Later in Hanoi we could visit a experimental fresh water bead nucleated pearl farm producing pearls from mussels.
We then visited in Hanoi a melo pearl dealer and were able to get some interesting useful information that enabled us few days after to visit the Cat Ba island and its port and to meet there Vietnamese melo melo fishermen. We were able to study several specimens of these mysterious sea snails producing in very rare cases one of the rarest, largest but also one of the most beautiful natural pearls: Melo pearls. (Read our report on www.giathai.net: "Melos and their pearls in Vietnam" for more details)
Finally after a visit to the Quy Chau and Quy hop ruby and sapphire mining area, which was very quiet, we took the plane to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in order to visit the blue sapphire deposit of Vietnam Highlands. We started our survey on the cost around Phan Thiet city with the deposits near Da Ban and with Ma Lam villages. Then we took the road to the mountain to visit the former mining area near Di Linh where there is currently no activity as most of the local working force is busy working in the coffee plantations which have replaced all the jungle and covering nowadays all the region. We finally left to the new province of Dak Nong (formerly Gia Nghia) where we scouted the Dak Ton and Dak Rung mining areas. There as the coffee was not yet replacing all the jungle we could find after several hours walking in the jungle some small scale mining areas and meet some sapphire and zircon miners.
"Melo snail in Cat Ba port"
A Vietnamese fisherman is holding a melo melo sea snail in Cat Ba port, Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. These sea snails are known to produce in some very rare cases beautiful large natural pearls.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2009
They after this visit to the south we returned to Hanoi in order to do, with the help of Pham Van Long, the necessary paper work for the export of our samples and returned to Bangkok on June 10th after a truly very successful field expedition.
A visit to gem markets and gem mining areas in North Vietnam (Spring 2005):
Abstract of the Vietnam 2005 page (Available at that link): This web page presents the field expedition lead by Vincent Pardieu (then Director of the AIGS Gemological Laboratory, Bangkok, Thailand) to North Vietnam. This fieldtrip was part of the expedition supported by AIGS and Gubelin Gem Lab with the help of ICA to Asia and Africa during summer 2005. During that expedition the author was helped by Jean baptiste Senoble, a young French gemologist who was the author student at AIGS Bangkok in 2005.
During that expedition, Hanoi was our main base. We started our visit traveling to the ruby, sapphire and spinel deposits located near Yen Bai and in the Luc Yen district. We continued our expedition visiting the Ha Long Bay where we found some interesting pearl farms. Finally we went south of Hanoi near Vinh in the Nghe An Province in order to visit the Quy Chau ruby mining area.
"Ruby mining in the Thac Ba Lake, Luc Yen District, Vietnam" Several hundred Vietnamese miners were seen in May 2005 mining rubies on the Thac Ba Lake as the level of the lake was very low. Photo: V. Pardieu/AIGS/Gubelin Gem Lab/ICA, 2005
Important Note: Vincent Pardieu is an employee of GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Laboratory Bangkok since Dec 2008. Any views expressed on this website - and in particular any views expressed by Vincent Pardieu - are the authors' opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GIA or GIA Laboratory Bangkok. GIA takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content on this website nor is GIA liable for any mistakes or omissions you may encounter. GIA is in particular not screening, editing or monitoring the content on this website and has no possibility to remove, screen or edit any content.
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