To find natural ruby gems and jewelry go shopping at the Bogyoke Market in Yangon.
There are many stores selling them. Some are "front ends" of mines at Mogok and Mong Hsu north east of Mandalay.
When you buy any of them be careful because they also have spinel which look almost identical, actually they have been running under one name until 1800 when a new specification was made on a international level were a new classification was made and this two were separated.
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| Natural Rough Ruby from the Mine |
The natural red color
is caused by a mixture of chromium. The content of chromium oxide in rubies fluctuates between 0.02 and 0.6 per cent. Rubies occur in various hues ranging from pink to red, often with a light blue shade. The most rare and valuable are called with "pigeon blood" color. Such gems contain approximately 0.1 per cent chromium trioxide.
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| Semi Precious Gemstones for Sale |
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| Jewelry shop at Bogyoke market |
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| Rubies from Mogok |
When exposed to ultraviolet light, some stones fluoresce in carmine-red, in sapphires that depends on the origin of the stones and the wavelength of the illumination.
Corundum gems possess a distinct optical effect called asterism where the stone show a three-, six-, or 12 pointed star. This effect is caused by the reflection of light from thin rutile crystal inside arranged in directions 500 or 1200 degree apart. Asterism is enhanced if a suitable cabochon cut is selected. In the past this was considered a proof of natural origin but they are now also made synthetically.
The richest Myanmar ruby fields are at Mogok, about 120 km north of Mandalay.
There is a production in Thailand but that are mostly gems smuggled in from Burma. Other come from Phailin in Cambodia. Alluvial rubies from Ratnapura in Sri Lanka are prized for their intensive vivid luster. A relative newcomer is Tanzania but the mineral there is not clear. In the USA varieties are found in North and South Carolina and Montana. Some of the most beautiful sapphires of various colors come from Phailin.
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| Cabochon pictures at Bogyoke Market |
How this was handled in the past is easy to understand
when considering that even in the crown jewel of the King / Queen of England are some spinel which the craftsmen who put it together though were natural ruby. A very special for to use the rough stones are "gem paintings".
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| Gem painting |
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| Gemstones painting |
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| Raw red stones from Mong Hsu |
Ruby Gemstones, gold, silver and precious teak wood
are the main export goods of the country. There is not much discovered until now but the authorities are working hard on exploration mainly to find metals.
Burma as it was known before is blessed with almost infinite deposits of semi-precious stones and until now they almost only scratched the surface since there were no scientific and high tech exploration yet, but that is rapidly changing.
In recent years other mining at Madagascar and Sri Lanka were explored and expanded but it is hard to beat the quality of Myanmar gemstones. For some reasons mother earth did something different here compared to other countries and with the start of sophisticated mining this will rapidly expand.
Among some other parameter the "Pigeon's blood" color and excellent clarity are the hallmarks of the top quality stones available here, they are found over 1000 years in this part of Asia together with sapphire since they both come from the corundum family which means they are physically the same only the color is different.
Sapphires are somehow even more interesting
because they come in more colors such as blue, pink, yellow, almost white transparent and other. After processing most stones show their real value and that can be a very high one compared to a diamond with similar parameters they can achieve even higher prices.
When buying it needs to look very close since garnet, spinel and some synthetic rubies are extremely similar, only a examination in a good lab can figure out what’s up. The Sanskrit word is ratnaraj, means royal gem, that’s telling the real value.
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| More Precious Gems |
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| Colored gemstones Pictures |
Related pages
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| Buy gems in Yangon |
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| Colored Gemstones Jewelry |
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