GIA FE15 (GIA Laboratory Bangkok Field Expedition 15): Apr. 03, 2010 - Apr. 04, 2010:

Each last Wednesday of the month, the GIA Laboratory Bangkok and the GIA Thailand School join their forces to organize events called the GIA Gemstone Gatherings at the Pan Pacific hotel on Rama IV road in Bangkok. The hotel is conveniently located just half way between the GIA Thailand School on Thanon Sap and the GIA Laboratory Bangkok on Rama IV road. It is each time a great occasion to attend a presentation of gemological interest and also to meet people active within the Bangkok gem trade, foreign gem merchants visiting Thailand, gemology students, etc. For the author it is all the time a good place to meet new people and old friends and to find good traveling companions for weekend expeditions to gem mining areas around Bangkok.

For the 34th edition of these GIA Gemstone Gatherings, the speaker was Vichian Veerasaksri, who spoke about CIBJO and its role within the gem industry. There I met again Jonathan Muyal, a young French gemologist who graduated last year from GIA Thailand. Jonathan was regularly attending the GIA Gemstone Gatherings since then and we had the occasion to exchange some words at different occasions. Jonathan Muyal has an incredible background as a former Thai boxing champion and a true gift for learning languages: He is fluent in French, English, Spanish, Thai and Japanese and has good basic in more than 5 other languages. As many others (including myself) he became interested in gemstones after spending nearly 10 years in another field (Professional Thai boxing for Jonathan, tour guide for me). Living in Thailand for few years, he came to logically to GIA Thailand to study gemology, get a diploma with a large international recognition and try to start something in relation with gemology. Jonathan was preparing a visit to Japan but had no plans for the weekend. We decided to visit Pailin in Cambodia for our first expedition together. A classic.

We left Bangkok early in the morning on April 4th with the bus while thousands of red shirts protesters were entering the city. First as usual we travelled to Chanthaburi, the gem city of Thailand we reached in about 4 hours. From there using a small songtaew we took the road to the Thai Cambodian border distant of about 50 additional kilometers. Pailin city is located 23 kilometers from the border. Nearly seven hours after leaving Bangkok we arrived in Pailin welcomed by some heavy rains... The region around the small city was green. Such a big contrast compared to 2 weeks ago where everything was dry and brown. Then gem mining was nearly reduced to zero due to the lack of water. Ruby and sapphire deposits around Pailin are secondary deposits. Gems are found from gem rich gravels that are washed. No water, no gem mining! Obviously during the last week rain was back and thus we had then good chance to be able to witness again some gem mining operation around Pailin. We nevertheless had to wait for Sunday to witness gem mining as on Saturday the author local contact and guide Votha Un was as many people in Pailin busy farming red corn. If gem mining can wait, in agriculture there is no time to waste when the rain has come... We met Votha for diner in our usual diner spot. There we could discuss about the next expedition we were planning to in few months to remote ruby mining areas located in the jungle south of Pailin. Of course we also discussed about the program for the next day: The visit at the morning gem market was looking promising!

On Sunday morning at 7 am we visited the gem market in order to take our breakfast, to get some fresh news about who was mining and where and of course to see some gems. For Jonathan it was a great occasion to study some interesting small rough sapphires and discover their inclusions.

(Gemologist Jonathan Muyal studying a parcel of sapphires in Pailin morning gem market that takes place each morning down the Phnum Yat temple.)
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2010)

As local gem dealers started to gather around us we saw as usual some interesting stones both rough and faceted. Most of the stones we saw were small in size as it is common in Pailin. Nevertheless it seems that the 2010 gem mining season had a good start as we could see some interesting stones that, reportedly, have been mined recently.

(Votha presenting to the author a very fine Pailin blue sapphire about 5 carats and a nice ruby about 2 carats. The sapphire was reportedly mined few years ago around Phnum Yat while the ruby was very recently mined near O Beng village, few kilometers north of Pailin city)
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2010)

The author could see that once again the best way to see some good stones is to show some money buying a fine gem... Local gem dealers then realize two important things: You know what a good gem is and you can afford them. At that point some merchants might invite you to their place where they might show you some fine gems they usually don't bring to the market. To your surprise you might then find out that some people you were feeling that you knew well were in fact keeping some fine gems secret and for some reason that day they feel good to let you look at them and even take some photos of them... Funny!

Of course the inverse is also true: Start your day buying a synthetic or a piece of glass in front of everybody for the price of a natural gem at the Pailin gem market, then be sure that for the rest of the day and probably also for several weeks, you will see mainly glass and synthetics as nobody will dare to show you anything good.

That weekend we were lucky to experience the first case: After spending about one hour at the gem market we were invited by some of the most serious gem miners and merchant in Pailin to visit them. We had then the great opportunity to see some stones of a quality so far never presented in Pailin to the author since 2004. That was really an interesting day!

Of course that was not meaning that production had been recently excellent: Most of the stones we saw were old stones they were treasuring possibly for years. Studying their internal world with the author GIA Dark field loupe, we found out that there was nothing that would enable to sustpect that the gems were not indeed rubies and sapphires mined in Pailin as those with visible inclusions under 10x loupe had classic inclusions for pailin gems.

(Details on the same fine ruby and sapphire presented on the previous photo. Note in the background an interesting pear shape zircon that was also mined around Pailin.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2010)

The author did not missed the opportunity to practice macro photography with his new camera. Things were obviously not really perfect particularly regarding colors. Anyway, it has to be expected and the author will have obviously to practice a little bit with this new camera before to get back the quality expected with the old one.

Most of the fine rubies and sapphires we saw were small in size compared to fine gems from other mining areas. Fine large gemstones are truly rare in Pailin but nevertheless there were some noticeable truly beautiful little gems: We could see a very fine and clean emerald cut blue sapphire about 5 carats displaying an even rich blue color. The stone was presented an unheated. Besides this fine gem, we could see many nice small rubies between 1 and 3 carats. Most of the rubies we saw were either heated displaying a deep red color, or unheated with then a distinct purplish secondary color. Besides these fines rubies and sapphire we could also see few interesting brown zircons.

(Rough and faceted Pailin rubies and sapphires. The rubies were reportedly mined near Bang Pra Lat village few kilometers from Pailin in the direction of the Thai border while the sapphires were mined around Phnum Yat volcano in the south of Pailin city. The largest faceted ruby is a little bit less than 3 carats. Most of the faceted rubies were probably heated while the rough stones still have the common purplish color of unheated stones.
Photo: V. Pardieu / GIA Laboratory Bangkok, 2010)

But we did not spent our week end just visiting gem merchant, after few hours we learned that one of the most important gem miners, known usually to mine rubies near bang pra Lat village had started few days ago a sapphire mining operation few hundred meters from Pailin city on the North of the Phnum Yat volcano.

We took the road to visit that mine and found out that he was working in partnership with a local farmer. The miner was providing the machines, was financing the whole mining operation including the rehabilitation of the land in exchange of 80% of the stones produced. The farmer was getting 20% of the stones produced. He told us that he was expecting that mining will be finished within 3 months and hopefully he will have enough stones to provide the capital he will need to turn the land into a fruit plantation and get enough to be able to wait for his trees to start producing something. In fact such practices where a gem miners and a farmer collaborate are very conservation friendly practices, as the land mined today will not became a wasteland. To the contrary gem mining can then provide to a poor farmer enough capital to improve his farm.