Archives

by Prof. P. G. R. Dharmaratne

For centuries and perhaps the last thousand years, Sri Lanka has reined as the king of the world's gem producing nations.

No other country has yielded such an abundance of gems in terms of quality and variety. In the past decade however, competition has taken place and the new king ascending the throne of the new millennium may be Madagascar.

The list of gem varieties from this new island source reads like a gemological textbook. From A to Z, you can find an abundance of Amethyst, Apatite, Alexandrite, Aquamarine, Beryl, Chrysoberyl (& Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye), Diamond, Emerald, Flurite, Garnet (Green, Orange, Purple, Red, Green and never heard of before 'blue'), Helidor, Iolite, Jadeite, Kunzite, Liddicoatite, Morganite, Quartz, Ruby, Sapphire, Spinel, Topaz, Uvarovite, Vesuvianite and Zircon. This is only a fraction of the list.

That is the upper end of the list, and there is also a huge selection of translucent and opaque gems such as Rose Quartz, Labradorite, Petrified Woods, Fossilized Shells, Common Opal, Jasoper and Agate, which are used for beads, cabochons and carvings.

We are really pushed down to the second place as we haven't got valuable varieties (traditionally called precious gems) such as Diamond, Emerald and even Alexandrite and Ruby are rarely found now in Sri Lanka, where as they are abundant in Madagascar.

Although Tourmaline and Garnet are considered semi-precious according to the tradition, Pink Tourmaline, Chrome Tourmaline (Green), Blue Tourmaline (Also known as Parabiba Tourmaline, after the first discovery at Paraiba in Brazil), Tasvorite (Green Garnet) are priced much more than blue sapphires (sometimes around US$ 15000-20000/carat) in the international gem trade.

We do not have those beautiful coloured tourmalines or Garnets that they have. So is it not true that Sri Lanka is producing more than 70 varieties of gemstones? It is true but about 97% of our gem exports by value constitute of Sapphire (80), Cat's Eye (10), Alexandrite (5), Ruby (1) and Topaz (1). All the other varieties together are less than 3% whereas in Madagascar, the earlier mentioned varieties are in abundance.

With so much interest in the new discoveries in Madagascar, researchers and traders have turned into Madagascar like never before. Text books on Gemology are being revised like annual publications.

Nowhere is quite like Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island is nine times the area of Sri Lanka with a population of 15 million people. It is the neglected, funny looking cousin of a continent isolated about 200 million years ago during the continental drift. The island developed a diverse and bizarre ecosystem with 97% of all non-flying life forms, exclusive to the island.

One of the strange species have in fact given the place little fame it has enjoyed in the past. Lemurs, perhaps the cutest of all primates, with colourful dog-money faces were more famous than the many other things in the island until gems of all kinds were found recently.

There from north to south and east to west, one can hardly find a place without gems.

Comparatively in Sri Lanka where there are not many rivers flowing to north, north-west or north-east, and also there are no gem bearing source rocks, north-east is virtually devoid of gem deposits.

During the past few years, almost all the restrictions for the gem trade have been removed in Sri Lanka. One of the noteworthy moves was the removal of duty and tax on the import of rough and cut and polished gemstones including diamonds.

This was done in order to make available raw materials to sustain the gem cutting industry in Sri Lanka and also to attract foreign buyers who would not only arrive here for buying Sri Lankan gemstones but also what is not produced in Sri Lanka. So that a buyer need not go to many countries to purchase their requirements.

Having learnt about the potential of gem resources in Madagascar, I organised a gem trade delegation to that country in April 1999 as Chairman of NGJA. The delegation consisted of 18 leading gem traders and officials of the Sri Lanka Gem Traders' Association, Sri Lanka did not have diplomatic ties established at that time, and due to poor communication facilities there, it took nearly four months to make the tour a reality. Fortunately for us one of my many correspondences to the Ministry of Energy and Mines had been directed to a travel agency to arrange the itinerary, which could not be done from here.

The following day a selected few met the Minister of Mines and the Secretary to the Ministry of Trade and had discussions as to how we can get involved in the gem trade in Madagascar.

In the afternoon we took flight to Tulear, the nearest major city to our destination, Illakaka which was further 260km away.

We were welcomed by 20 to 30 scornful Thai's who had already extended their tentacles to Madagascar before we ventured.

Gemming was being done just around the corner, on a hill slope. There was no water to be seen except a small stream at the bottom of the valley it was being used for drinking, bathing, washing gem gravels and for all the other human needs.

The miners dwellings reminded me honey-comb shanties in Mumbai, and Sri Lankan shanties would have been a luxury.

The abandoned gem pits lay miles long, and it is a sight you will not see in Sri Lanka although we have been mining for centuries. Unfortunately for Madagascar, we heard that most miners starting point of mining, is the countries few protected areas. The miners seem to believe that the parks are fertile ground of the gems, plus they are protected, so that they think there must be something good inside!

After having a preliminary visit to the area, we set off to our night-stay in a little hotel at Ihosy another 30km away.

We managed to sleep because everybody was so tired after day's travel. The following day morning we went back to the gem trading and mining area and members of our team went wild with having seen the gems so much similar, but cheaper to what we see in Sri Lanka.

It was like putting fish into the water, they hardly needed a few minutes before they started purchasing. In the evening we returned to Tulear and following day I took flight to Tana and back to Sri Lanka via Mauritius and Singapore, the usual route for a Sri Lankan going to Madagascar.

Our team wanted to stay a few days to continue studying and purchasing gems.

Throughout our tour, there were a few officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mines to guide and look after us.

It is interesting to look at why gemstones of Madagascar look so much similar to those of Sri Lanka. Two hundred million years ago the earth consisted of two continents known as Laurasia and Gondwanaland.

Gondwanaland was made of one single landmass of South America, India, Africa, Australia and Antarctica together. During the continental drift that took place afterwards, those countries were separated. The origin of gemstones due to Igneous and metamorphic activities took place around xxx million years ago.

So it has been established that there is a gem belt running across Sri Lanka, Kerala, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Medagacar down to Antarctica. Similarly the fossils as well as gems in these countries lends credibility to the theory.

Like Sri Lanka, Madagascar consists mainly of Precambrian rocks, and the central part of Madagascar is called 'highland' and goes upto 3,000m in height.

That is why gems formed during the same period under similar conditions in Sri Lanka and Madagascar are similar.

Since our tour, through many seminars, I informed the gem traders of the gem potential in Madagascar and the number of people travelling there grew steadily.

Over the past few years many thousands of people have visited the country and imported gems and have become very successful. Since my return I informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the importance of establishing diplomatic ties with Madagascar, so that the hassle that our people have to undergo to get a visa from Singapore or Thailand can be avoided.

And also there were a numerous instances where our people had been robbed, assaulted, gems left at the Customs being lost. It took so much efforts on the part of the then Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PA government to make contact with their counterpart in Madagascar.

But none of those attempts were successful and finally Laksman Kadiragamar had to meet the Foreign Minister of Madagascar at the UN meeting in 2000 and pursue the matter. And finally in 2001, the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I visited Madagascar to sign the agreement to establish diplomatic ties.

Once again I had been continuously pursuing with the ministry to establish an honorary consulate and appoint a consul for Sri Lanka in Madagascar. With the consultation of the Sri Lanka Gem Traders' Association and the consent of the Additional Secretary, I recommended a qualified, experienced person whom we met in Madagascar and later in Sri Lanka to be appointed as the honorary consul.

Meanwhile Madagascar though not keen at first, probably having realised the importance of it, established their consulate in Sri Lanka early 2002.

Now at least Lankans need not go to other countries to get visas but our own consulate in Madagascar could help our traders. We are running out of our resources in Sri Lanka and other countries are exploiting the gem potential in Madagascar.

www.ceylincoproperties.com

www.ppilk.com

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager