Gemstone Mining

Gemstones are oddities in the geological world. The conditions that allow a mineral crystal to grow slowly and undisturbed, and thus remain transparent and evenly colored, are extremely rare in natural environments. Moreover, such conditions tend to be very restricted in volume. The result is that the amount of cuttable (gemstone) material present in any specific locality tends to be very small.

A typical gemstone mine can be as small as a normal-sized living room. Most countries in which commercial deposits of gemstones are found are in developing nations or socialist countries in which entrepreneurial activities are not encouraged and mechanized equipment is unobtainable. Gemstone mining throughout the world is, for the most part, primitive and small-scale. This is one of the reasons why most gemstone deposits were not exhausted centuries ago. In Sri Lanka, for example, miners dig pits as deep as 50 feet in search of favorable layers of "illam", or gemstone-bearing gravels, tracing the courses of ancient (and long-buried) stream beds. Once a shaft is dug the illam is brought up in small buckets with a hand or oxen-powered winch. A week's production would scarcely fill a baby's playpen. This is meticulously washed and screened to yield a handful of small pebbles, some of which may turn out to be cuttable sapphire, chrysoberyl, garnet or some other gemstone.

The small size of most gemstone deposits and the primitive nature of gemstone mining make the supply of gems "inelastic". That is, no matter how rapidly demand may develop, the rate at which gems are produced is limited or fixed. Gemstone mines are also subject to the whims of weather, such as rainy and dry seasons, and local politics. Some are marginal producers that are not profitable to mine unless gemstone prices rise substantially. All these factors combined suggest continued rising prices for gems in the years ahead, as demand increases, localities are exhausted and geopolitical factors interrupt the tenuous supply chain from minehead to consumer.