"Vato Masina II": Return to Bemainty 8 months after "Vato Masina I"
52.2 هزار بار بازدید -
7 سال پیش
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In September 2016 a major
In September 2016 a major sapphire rush took place near Bemainty village close to Ambatondrazaka in Madagascar. The discovery soon attracted tens of thousands of miners from all around Madagascar. Field Gemologist Vincent Pardieu, an independent consultant with a passion for both gemology and conservation, visited the new deposit in Feb 2017 while the rush was already ongoing for 6 months and published "Vato Masina I". Eight months after in October 2017, he returned there to continue gemological research for the DANAT (Bahrain Institute for Pearls & Gemstones) and to witness the evolution of mining one year after the beginning of the rush. The number of miners has reduced seriously from about 20,000 or 30,000 to about 500 in the main mining site called "Tananarivo", the mining was now taking place in new areas in the west called "Ambudipesho" and "Madico" where about 1,000 people were mining greenish blue and yellow stones of a quality much lower than in "Tananarivo".
The main issue with that rush is that it is taking place in a protected area located between 3 national parks. Several alarming articles in the mainstream media were published blaming miners for the disparition of lemurs and their habitat. Well first we learned that the miners did not destroyed the forest, the discovery was made in an area that was burned by farmers practicing "slash and burn" type farming called "Taavy". There was enough wood on the floor for the miners to focus more on mining than on chopping trees. Visiting twice the site we could witness that unlike what was reported by the media the trees had not suffered much during that period of mining and we were happy to hear lemurs everywhere we were going, meaning that they were still alive. The main issue for conservation being in our opinion the siltation process resulting from gem mining, but well the mainstream media obviously didn't visited the area to enquiry about what was going on but obviously more to get some images to fit on a story they had already written before to visit the area. This is sad as there would have been some interesting true stories to tell about that sapphire rush.
For more info:
See the complete article about the area published in the Spring 2017 issue of InColor Magazine:
http://www.gemstone.org/incolor/Incol...
See also the complete study on that new material that we published as a pdf on GIA website:
Pardieu V., Vertriest W., Weeramonkhonlert V., Raynaud V., Atikarnsakul U., Perkins R. (2017) Sapphires from the gem rush Bemainty area, Ambatondrazaka (Madagascar).
https://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research...
See also Rosey Perking reports, after her expedition in Oct 2016:
Perkins R. (2016) Sapphire rush in the jungle east of Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar: an expedition report:
https://roseyperkins.com/sapphire-rus...
https://roseyperkins.com/wp-content/u...
https://roseyperkins.com/sapphire-rus...
https://roseyperkins.com/visit-sapphi...
https://roseyperkins.com/old-new-sapp...
and watch the following video she published after her return:
Visit To Sapphire Rush Madagascar by ...
See also our first report on GIA website:
Perkins R., Pardieu V. (2016) Gem News International: Sapphire rush near Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar. Gems & Gemology, 52(4), 429-430.
See at:
https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/win...
The main issue with that rush is that it is taking place in a protected area located between 3 national parks. Several alarming articles in the mainstream media were published blaming miners for the disparition of lemurs and their habitat. Well first we learned that the miners did not destroyed the forest, the discovery was made in an area that was burned by farmers practicing "slash and burn" type farming called "Taavy". There was enough wood on the floor for the miners to focus more on mining than on chopping trees. Visiting twice the site we could witness that unlike what was reported by the media the trees had not suffered much during that period of mining and we were happy to hear lemurs everywhere we were going, meaning that they were still alive. The main issue for conservation being in our opinion the siltation process resulting from gem mining, but well the mainstream media obviously didn't visited the area to enquiry about what was going on but obviously more to get some images to fit on a story they had already written before to visit the area. This is sad as there would have been some interesting true stories to tell about that sapphire rush.
For more info:
See the complete article about the area published in the Spring 2017 issue of InColor Magazine:
http://www.gemstone.org/incolor/Incol...
See also the complete study on that new material that we published as a pdf on GIA website:
Pardieu V., Vertriest W., Weeramonkhonlert V., Raynaud V., Atikarnsakul U., Perkins R. (2017) Sapphires from the gem rush Bemainty area, Ambatondrazaka (Madagascar).
https://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research...
See also Rosey Perking reports, after her expedition in Oct 2016:
Perkins R. (2016) Sapphire rush in the jungle east of Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar: an expedition report:
https://roseyperkins.com/sapphire-rus...
https://roseyperkins.com/wp-content/u...
https://roseyperkins.com/sapphire-rus...
https://roseyperkins.com/visit-sapphi...
https://roseyperkins.com/old-new-sapp...
and watch the following video she published after her return:
Visit To Sapphire Rush Madagascar by ...
See also our first report on GIA website:
Perkins R., Pardieu V. (2016) Gem News International: Sapphire rush near Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar. Gems & Gemology, 52(4), 429-430.
See at:
https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/win...
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