GIA FE09 (GIA Laboratory Bangkok Field Expedition 09): Part 05: Oct. 08 - Oct. 15, 2009: 31st IGC Congress Arusha:

After spending many hours driving on dusty roads or visiting mines, these few days in Arusha were the occasion to meet a lot of people, attend to interesting presentations and also travel around Arusha to visit mining area with the rest of the gemologist attending the IGC.

But first you may wonder what exactly the IGC is?

The I.G.C. stands for the "International Gemological Conference". It was started in Europe in 1952 by a group of enthusiastic gemologists, including the famed Prof. Edward Gubelin. It is a bi-annual gathering which is attended by gemologists from around 30 different countries. The main goal of this organization is to enable cooperation between gemologists from around the world particularly between gemologists from gem producing countries and gem consuming countries. Membership is by invitation only, and has some specific rules: Typically each country can have only a maximum of 2 to 5 representatives (depending on country size) selected on the basis of scientific and ethical standards. This organization is independent from any commercial operation. Besides the normal members, the organizer can also invite some guests to attend to the conference. Usually the IGC is then some kind of "old timers" meeting but this time, and this is something very new, several young gemologists were among the people invited to the conference.

I was invited at the 31st IGC as a guest by John Saul and his son Mark Saul (Swala gem Traders), as they knew that I was traveling to East Africa for the GIA Laboratory Bangkok at the time of the IGC. It was my first participation to such event and it was a real pleasure. The event despite the economic crisis was successful: It was well attended with about 40 people from about 15 countries including many friends.

The conference was open on Oct 9th in the evening after a speech from the Governor of the Arusha region. The opening ceremony was followed on Oct 10th and 11th of 2 days with interesting gemological presentations at the Arusha hotel. There was an obvious focus on gemstone deposits and gems from East Africa, but these were also several interesting presentations about pearls, diamonds and some general gemological topics. As a guest of John Saul I was not supposed to give a presentation, nevertheless Thanong Leelawathanasuk from the GIT who was giving a presentation on Mozambique rubies was very nice to invite me at the end of his presentation to give an update about the different ruby mining areas in Mozambique.

The conference was the occasion for the IGC board to be renewed. It is composed now of the following seven members (by alphabetical order): Georges Bosshart (Switzerland), Emmanuel Fritsch (France), Henry Hanni (Switzerland), Michael Krzemnicki (Switzerland), Jayshree Panjikar (India), John Saul (International), Tay Thye Sun (Singapore), Gamini Zoysa (Sri Lanka) and Hanco Zwaan (Netherlands)

At the end of the conference, as usual the people attending the conference were asked about the location of the next IGC, the only proposal was from Michael Krzemnicki who proposed to host the 32nd IGC in Switzerland in 2011.

It was also proposed to create a website for the IGC which in my opinion would be a good thing as it was not easy to get reliable information about what is the IGC on the Internet.

But the IGC was not just about nice gemological presentations and coctails parties in a cosy hotel: At the end of the congress we had 3 days with short field trips to gemstones mines around Arusha...

The lab rats were going to explore rat holes!

It was a pleasure to get a chance to go to the field with some gemological monuments. A real pleasure, fun and interesting!

- On Monday 12th, 2009 we went to visit the Tanzanite One mining operation in Merelani. For the occasion Tanzanite One gave us the possibility to visit the Tanzanite Museum which will be open to the public within few weeks. With the rest of the group I went underground and visited the shaft Tanzanite One arranged for the public: The JW shaft. That was interesting as in 2005 I visited the "Main Shaft" and during my last visit in sept. I visited the "Investor shaft".

For more info on Tanzanite: Please follow the link to our Tanzanite article.

A visit to gem markets and gem mining areas in Tanzania (Summer 2005):

Abstract of the Tanzania 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 Tanzania in July 2005. This fieldtrip was part of the expedition supported by the AIGS gemological laboratory and the 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 studied gemology at AIGS in Bangkok in 2005.

That expedition was planned with the support of ICA Member Mark and Eric Saul from Swala Gem Traders in Arusha. With the help of Tanzanian gem broker Abdul Y. Msellem, we visited numerous gem deposits starting from Tanzaniteone (Tanzanite mine at Merelani), Lemeshuko/Komolo (Tsavorite), Lossogonoi and Longido (ruby), we travelled then to the coast and visited the Umba area (sapphire, garnet), we continued south to Morogoro where we visited ruby and spinel deposits in the Uluguru mountains and then near Mahenge. We travelled then south to visit the Songea sapphire mining area and finally the Tunduru area producing rubies, sapphires, and many other gems including spinels, garnets, chrysoberyl, diamonds. We then returned to Arusha after about a month traveling around Tanzania.