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 Welcome to GIA Laboratory Bangkok's "Field reports" page.
This page contains field reports from GIA Laboratory's Bangkok field gemologists.
If in the past several gemologists working in gemological laboratories were occasionally visiting gemstone mining areas, GIA Laboratory, Bangkok was the first gemological laboratory to create a field-gemology department in December 2008 with the arrival at GIA Laboratory Bangkok of gemologist Vincent Pardieu, a laboratory gemologist experienced in traveling to gemstones mining areas in Asia and Africa.
The current focus of the department is on ruby, sapphire and emerald as part of GIA research on origin determination of gemstones. The choice of Bangkok and Thailand as a base for these expeditions and this department was logical as first, GIA has in Bangkok, Thailand a state of the art gemological research laboratory and then as Thailand is nowadays the world most important ruby and sapphire trading center regarding gemstones recently mined as currently most of the ruby production and a large part of the sapphire production (mainly from Asian and African deposits) is passing through Thailand to reach the world markets.
The field gemology department main mission is to plan and conduct gemological expeditions to selected gemstone mining areas around the world in order to collect valuable reference samples using GIA's protocols. These samples are then fully documented and prepared at GIA Laboratory, Bangkok before to integrate the GIA gemstone reference collection.
Besides collecting samples, visiting gemstone mining areas enable GIA to collect up to date information about gem mining which will be useful for GIA, the whole gemstone industry and for all people interested by gemstones and their often very exotic origins.
These reports forms part of a series of simple yet informative reports that describe field trips undertaken by GIA field gemologists in order to obtain specimens from mines producing a variety of gemstones throughout the world.
Comments and enquires about these publications are warmly welcomed.
Please contact: giabkklab@gia.edu stating the name of the project and name(s) of the author(s).
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Expedition report to ruby mining sites in Northern Mozambique (Sept. - Dec. 2009) by V. Pardieu, S. Jacquat, J.B. Senoble, L.P. Bryl, R.W. Hughes and M. Smith
(Released December 16th, last edited December 23rd, 2009) This extensive and illustrated expedition report presents the first description of the new ruby mining areas in Mozambique... |
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Concise Field Report Vol. 2, Part 1: Melos and their Pearls in Vietnam (May - Jun. 2009) by V. Pardieu
"Melo pearls are beautiful non nacreous pearls produced by a mysterious sea snail living in the hot waters of South East Asia from Vietnam to Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. This report presents the information collected by GIA field gemologists hunting melo snails in Vietnam in May 2009."
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Concise Field Report Vol. 01: Pailin, Cambodia: (Dec. 2008 - Feb. 2009) by V. Pardieu
"The Pailin gem mining area in Cambodia is located just near the Thai border. It is a known source of basalt related rubies and blue sapphires since the end of the XIX century. This report provides an update about the current mining there and illustrates the way GIA field gemologists collect specimens at the source."
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About gemological research at GIA:
For decades, GIA has been on the cutting edge of gemological research, analyzing data on gems and their characteristics. This effort becomes more challenging each year, as new gem sources emerge and new treatment processes and synthetic materials come onto the market. And if artificially enhanced gems and synthetics were left undetected, every gem and jewelry purchase would be a risk. GIA is dedicated to providing consumers the knowledge they need, and that’s why research is at the very core of GIA’s nonprofit mission.
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About origin determintation of gemstones at GIA:
Most agree that geographic origin should not be used as a quality factor, as even the most renowned gem mining areas produce many low quality gems. Nevertheless like in art, for gems as for many other luxury items, geographic origin affects market value. It means that gems of equivalent beauty and quality but which were mined in different geographical areas might have a different market value based on their origin: Typically gems originating from famous and romantic traditional mining areas may have a higher market value compared to similar gems mined from a less glamorous and famous source. Besides romantic and marketing aspects, recently new legal and also ethical concerns appeared in several consuming markets. Thus GIA is offering origin determination services for several types of gemstones including ruby and sapphire but also emeralds and tourmaline (see services). To provide the best possible service, research on origin determination of gemstones is nowadays a very important part of gemological research at GIA. In December 2008, the GIA laboratory Bangkok was the first gemological laboratory to create a field gemology program. Its purpose is to collect reference samples on site at the source using GIA protocols in order to build and update the best origin related gemstone reference collection for GIA researchers to work on.
Note: Comments on the reports and their direction are warmly welcomed as are offers of collaboration. Please contact: giabkklab@gia.edu stating the name of the project and name(s) of the author(s). |
