Ruby Gemstones

Precious stones are plenty. 

The few top quality gems which carry a real high price tag come from Mogok which is north of Mandalay. East of the second largest city in the country is another source which is Mong Hsu with lesser quality findings.

A very interesting use for them are so called gemstones paintings where the paint material is substituted by the colored stones. The other variants where the stones are used are bearings in high end watches and laser (usually synthetic stones), plus the main application, which is ruby jewelry.


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For sale at Bogyoke Market

Ruby and sapphire gemstone 
harvest at Mogok

They are among the rarest precious stones with very few sources with good qualities. The Mogok area about 120 km and a few hours travel from the Irrawaddy is the place where the finest rubies are found and this already since about thousand years, maybe even more.  

If this precious little stones have a hue called ‘Pigeon’s blood’ and have a good clarity excellent prices can be fetched. Especially size, clarity and color are main parameters which count. 

Almost all have inclusions (which nobody likes) that leads to the fact that most red stones are somehow manipulated. This is made by heating them up so that this inclusion melt away, sometimes cracks are filled by squeezing a glass like resin into the stone under very high pressure.

Raw ruby on marble

That’s the method finest Burmese rubies are made, the thing is if this is told to the buyer, it’s ok, but usually it is not to get high prices so it will be a cheat. If this gem has no inclusions at all it is probably synthetic.

Heated stones keep their properties but resin injected will fade away their appearance after around 3 years and are just junk afterwards. That leads to the suggestion if you buy a higher priced gem have it evaluated in a lab.

The color of the gems is very important 

it is producing a diffuse glowing and fluorescence. When the gems are not very clear they are manufactured into cabochons. Some of this round cut and polished gemstones show a very interesting pattern which is called star ruby. That is the same also with sapphires; this comes from so called rutile inside the stone which reflect the right in a certain way. Usual are 6 pointed stars and very rarely one with 12 is found.