PRECIOUS STONES

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12211, 8 August 1925, Page 11

PRECIOUS STONES

jj Rubies, Emeralds, Pearls, Sapphires jj

In his interesting story of the romances, attached to some of the most precious jewels in the world, George 'MacAdam, who,,write? ; ig. the New York “Times,” speaks of the wonderful details collated ! by Dr Kunz, the famous authority on precious stones, and wtich aresummarised in the article below. '

In the magazine page of last Saturday’s “Times” particulars were / given of the ..magnificent Cnllinanj Kohinoor, and other famous diamonds. To-day’a • article deals with precious emeralds, mibies,'and sapphires. ' , ■ ■■■

HE emerald is ,the jasper; The " mines > agate, hematite, > and lapis lazuli, , garnets, * semi-precious stones—in emeralds in and there they dealt Babylon, 4000 8.C., was a - gem market in precious stones. There . eifrliest known, of the wore in Upper Egypt,“ on the Zabara Mountains, neur the Red Sea. They were worked as late as Arab times.Then they- were lpsti; About 1830 they were rediscovered, but were found to be almost exhausted." The world, however, was not . allowed to run short in its supply of emeralds. The Spanish adventurers in South America hunted out the old mines of the Incas. Since then the principal supply has come from 'those ancient diggings. ThO mines are near Muzo, United States of Colombia.- Ur Kunz says : “Dining the last' two years a great stock of emeralds .was gradually accumulated, and these, to the value of several millions of;dollars, were sold direct by the Colombian Government to a syndicate of French jewellers, who proceeded to distlribnte them throughout the world.“ Note the shifting, through the centuries, of the centre. of the emerald trade: Babylon, Alexandria, Constantinople, Augsburg (Germany)' London, Paris, New York. ’ THE RUBY OF THE ORIENT lake the emerald—product of : the country of the Pharaohs ■ and of the Incas—the ruby also takes us to a land of romance. It is found only in the Far Orient. The finest ruby mines are those of Mogok, in Upper Burma. There are j funes in the Sagin Hills, near Mandalay. .It is from these mines Of Burma that the pigeon-blOod rnbiet - eonje. There' are ; also mines in the provinces of Ohantabnn and .Erat, in Jbe neighbouring country of Siam The Siamese -rubies are of a Brownishred colour. Burmese rubies bring from two to ten times as much as the Siamese rabies. -, The mines of‘•Burma lave been woi-k-. ed for many centuries. They ire now controlled by the Rnby Mines, Ltd., a t*

London, corporation. Dr Kuna pats the output of ruby mines for the last thirty-five, years- at approximately 8,500,000 dollars,, “and, in. addition, the native -miners would in the same period have found stones to about half that value.” This brings the total production of rubies for the period to 12,759,000 dollars. ; ' Siam and Burma both produced sapphires, but the story ..of the ruby is now, reversed, for the Siamese sapphires are far superior to thp Burmese. Siam is the great : sapphireproducing country, more than half the sapphires annually found coming from the mines, of 80-Pie-Bin alone.' . The deposits are east of Chantabun, on the Gplf of. Siam, their area covering about 100 English', square miles. They were discovered about 1866 and have beenxaore and more actively worked, an English company taking, over the mines in 18P0. . in .Queensland, Australia, are the Anakie sapphire fields. Production began in. 1892, the output having a value of Approximately 22,000 dollars. With “n exception of a slump during the World War, each year since has seen ,» Steady increase, the output of 1920 having * value of 328,000 dollar?. Dr Kuim puts the total production of the Analqe fields at well over 2.000.000 .dollars. QUANTITIES OF SAPPHIRES _ More productive than the Sapphire ■ fields of: Australia are the mines operated ,in Fergus County, Montana, by the New Mine Sapphire Syndicate, the mining property owned by the syndicate has am area of 1550 Acres, and,covers the..sapphire lode for an ex--tent of five and* a' half miles. The property consists of a continuous series of- eighteen lode claims, two of which havn been worked to a certain extent last , twenty years. In ' this r™ n^ 8 ’ *° ~t he value ' °. f about tfen placed on .the '

h»™ l> E! tal ‘r qu /” titi ? s of sapphires have been found in the Zanskar -district of Cashmere, India. There Are mine? m Burma, in Cambodia, in teflon. The production, in .Ceylon '• fell Off greatly: but last year came ,the report that a t Pnlmadulla another v&yy valuable discovery was zuade.