The
15th edition of the Facets Show,
the island's prime trade fair
that is organized annually by
the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery
Association, was a resounding
success. Held in early September,
the show hosted 150 exhibitors
who catered to buyers from,
among others, the United States,
South Korea, Taiwan, India,
Thailand and Israel. Unheated,
blue and fancy colored sapphires
drew most attention with unheated,
large (over 6 carats) stones
selling for $4,000 per carat.
Pink unheated sapphires also
drew buyers, fetching between
$1,000 and $2,500 per carat
for larger goods. Other goods
in demand were alexandrite over
2 carats, and blue star sapphires
between 8 and 25 carats. Exhibitors
reported volume sales of fancy
colored sapphires, in particular
of strong yellow stones.
Pictured at the show from left:
U.S. gem trader Allen Kleiman,
of Boulder, Co., the Honorable
A.H.M. Fowzie, Sri Lanka's minister
of environment & natural
resources; the Hon. Rohitha
Bogollagama, minister of advanced
technology & national enterprise
development; Macky Hashim, Facets
Show Chairman; Louri and simon
Watt, of Maysville, KY.;and
Kamil Ismail, ICA secretary
and owner of Gembines Company. |
The
National Gem and ewellery Authority
(NGJA) confirmed in Augustthat
a large primary deposit of aquamarine
was discovered in July during
mining of quartzite on a rubber
plantation in Opanayake, about
25 kilometers from Sri Lanka's
' gem capital, Ratnapura, JNA
Online reported August 22. To
date the occurrence of aquamarine
in Sri Lanka was usually from
Ratnapura and Nawalapitiya and
the stones were always water
worn. Furthermore, other than
moonstones, which were mined
from a weathered pegmatite in
Meetiyagoda and in-situ chrysoberyl
in Pattara, no other commercially
viable gem deposits were known
to exist.
The
recent finding has generated
talk of a genesis of gemstones
in the country. Some of the
crystals extracted from the
deposit are 10cm or longer and
are a light sky blue to darker
blue in color fit for the medium
to upper market range. Some
of the material is being described
as similar to the famous Santa
Maria aquamarines from Brazil.
Geologist, gemologist and ICA
member, Gamini Zoysa, of Mincraft
Pvt. Ltd. in Colombo, said about
50 percent of the material is
gem quality and pieces he had
seen were of good color. Some
of crystals had a lot of inclusions,
but fine gem material is being
produced.
Senior regional manager of the
NGJA's Ratnapura office, Bandula
Vithanage, said that in accordance
with NGJA regulations, the deposit
was to be blocked off and put
up for auction to companies
or groups of miners for extraction.
According to JNA Online the
NGJA will divide the area, of
about half an acre, into four
or five blocks and sell it by
auction to miners for a mining
period of one year. |
