What It’s Like to Be a Field Gemologist, Part 2

the national park to fight against poaching and things like that. So there was a positive synergy between the park, tsavorite and tsavorite miners.


But that’s not always the case. Like recently in Madagascar, where you have some sapphire discoveries inside one of the last protected forest areas, you have thousands of miners invading the protected area and now there is a direct conflict between the conservationists trying to protect this area and sapphire traders and miners.

So I’m trying to help find some solutions because, from what I see, in some areas conservation and gem mining can work together, and there are some opportunities for the gem trade and conservation to collaborate, but if there are conflicts, I think it can be very dangerous for the gem trade because we are making enemies that we don’t really want to make.

NJ: So in these situations, you’re sort of playing a role where you are also trying to help figure out how to branch the two, as well as doing the field research?

VP: Yes. Because I need to speak with them in order to access these areas. When I go to an area, I go to see the authorities, and sometimes there are some security issues so I have to ask for permission. And of course, every time I speak with the authorities, they ask me my opinion (about the mining sites), because very regularly I see that the guys in charge never have visited the sites. So I try to convince them to, No. 1, let me go, and maybe let me go with some policemen or some technicians.

Then I come back and I tell them what I have seen. The whole time there is collaboration because I need to get access and be able to collect some samples, and in exchange I provide them with information and with some advice.

NJ: Is there anywhere you haven’t been or any projects you haven’t started yet that you would still like to do?

VP: There are a lot of places. During the past eight years for GIA I focused on rubies and sapphires, but this year I think I will focus on emeralds. I plan to visit quite a lot of emerald deposits in the coming year, so probably go to Brazil, Colombia and some other emerald sites I haven’t visited yet, like Madagascar and Austria. I visited some emerald mines when they were close to the ruby and sapphire mines. Emerald was my priority No. 3, and now it’s becoming my priority No. 1.

There are plenty of countries where I haven’t put my feet and with this focus on emerald, I will be able to find a good reason to go there. That will be fun.

NJ: To take a broad look at the market, from your perspective, what are some of the biggest challenges that the colored gemstone sector faces today?

VP: There are multiple. There is always the challenge that most people understand very, very little about colored stones and they have a very limited knowledge about colored stones, so this creates an opportunity for some to take advantage of the lack of knowledge.

(Specifically I’m talking about) technical knowledge about, for example, synthetic treatments and how to speak about treatment. The trade still doesn’t know how to speak about treatment. They are trying to avoid it because treatment sounds bad. Many people in the trade are afraid to speak about treatments so they prefer not to, so (the challenge is) how to handle treatment, how to communicate about treatment, how to explain to the customer that treatment is not always a bad thing.

“The trade still doesn’t know how to speak about treatment. They are trying to avoid it because treatment sounds bad. Many people in the trade are afraid to speak about treatments so they prefer not to.”

For many mining areas now, you need treatment. If you don’t have treatment, only maybe less than 1 percent of the production would be able to find a market. But I don’t know any business that can survive with 1 percent of production. If there is a mining area that is active, it’s probably because there is a treatment. And, actually, untreated stones are a byproduct of mining for a stone that will be treated.

For example, rubies; to find rubies that don’t need heat treatment, there might be one stone like that out of 100. But if the 100 don’t find a market, it will not be profitable for the miner to work the project.

It’s very difficult. The miners have to be able to sell their daily production to be able to survive. Most of the miners don’t have enough capital to survive until they get an exceptional stone. Mining is not about getting exceptional stones; it’s about getting some stones and then from time to time, there will be an exceptional stone. This is one of the difficulties the trade has. 

Also, speaking about origin; origin is complicated because there are many different labs with different opinions. Some labs are not doing research, some labs are. But they still all have an opinion. And the final customer has the problem of figuring out which labs they should trust the most.

For colored stones, it’s complicated because you have a great variety of choice—so many stones and so many colors. Many people feel lost because they don’t know who to trust, they feel like there’s so much to learn and they don’t know enough so maybe they should think about buying something else. How to maintain the trust in the product—I think the colored stone sector has a lot to improve in that area.