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Ceylon’s
Gem Mines by Peter Bancroft |
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One
of the world’s most beautiful and exotic islands,
Sri Lanka, (formerly Ceylon) lies just below the southern
tip of India. This pear-shaped bit of tropical paradise,
about the size of Sicily, is a tourist’s delight
offering British teahouses, rubber plantations, and
gem mines.
Marco Polo wrote of his visit in 1292: “I want
you to understand that the island of Ceylon is, for
its size, the finest island in the world, and from its
streams comes rubies, sapphires, topazes, amethyst and
garnet.” Little has changed since Marco Polo’s
time except that Sri Lanka faces overpopulation and
a faltering economy.
Its gemstones, however, seem to occur
in endless supply. Known as the “Jewel Box of
the Indian Ocean,” Sri Lanka, like possibly no
other locality on earth, has yielded precious stones
and fine gems in a great profusion of gem species and
varieties.
The island was known in the ancient
world as Taprobane (copper colored in Greek). Native
Veddahs, bathing in smooth flowing streams, noticed
colored pebbles scattered in sandy bottoms. It was not
until 500 B.C. that conquering Buddhists from northern
India also discovered gems in the rivers and began to
set rough stones into crude jewelry. They bartered stones
with traders from abroad and eventually the treasures
found their way to the marketplaces of Asia and Europe.
Ancient Greek and Chinese historians referred to the
beautiful gems of Ceylon, and King Solomon reportedly
wooed the Queen of Sheba with Ceylonese precious stones.
Geologically, gemstones originated within a broad belt
known as the Highland Series which runs through the
center of Sri Lanka. The edges of the belt form a trough
bordered by chains of mountains and peaks. The trough,
made up of highly crystalline Precambrian metamorphosed
rock, featured components of schists, quartzite, marbles,
and sometimes pegmatite deposits. Rock erosion resulted
in the formation of extensive gem-laden placer deposits
along stream beds in lower valleys.
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BELOW:
Sapphire Size: 3.5 by 2 cm
Locality: Ratnapura
Collection: Harold and Erica Van Pelt
Photo: Harold and Erica Van Pelt |
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| Miners
soon learned the richest deposits were composed of blue
and yellow clays called illam which lay just below the
surface of lush valley farmlands. During their tortuous
journey downstream, most gem crystals were worn to rounded
pebbles, but harder than host minerals, they managed
to retain much of their size.
Every available square meter of stream bed was mined
until all known gem areas were exhausted. The miners
discovered that the rivers they were working were in
reality “surface streams” and that by digging
downward from 7 to 30 meters, “ancient streams”
could be encountered. Unfortunately most of the ancient
streams lay beneath cultivated fields. Prospecting and
mining operations caused great destruction to crops
and created considerable animosity between farmer and
miner. |
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Pelmadulla
mine near Ratnapura
Photo: Peter Bancroft |
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Eventually
new mining methods were devised whereby the gem hunter
could operate at a profit and still leave the farmland
virtually intact. A vertical shaft was dug downward
until the illam was reached. Feeder tunnels extended
in a number of directions like the spokes on a wheel.
The shaft and tunnels were carefully supported by wood
and bamboo timbers. The miners dug along the tunnels,
loaded the gravel into knapsacks, and then climbed to
the surface with their loads.
Washing, screening, and sorting occurred on the surface.
Usually pumps operated full time to keep the tunnels
free of water. When a mine played out, the tunnels were
closed off, the shaft filled, the buildings removed,
and new topsoil spread over the area. As another growing
season approached, all vestiges of the mine vanished. |
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The
“Maharani” chrysoberyl cat’s-eye
Locality: Sri Lanka
Weight 58.2 carats
Collection: Smithsonian Institution
Photo: Dane Penland |
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In 1974 when the author visited Sri Lanka, the Pelmadulla
mine was in operation about 15 kilometers west of
Ratnapura. It proved to be a good producer of white
and cornflower-blue sapphires. Like all gem gravel
mines on the island, when the Pelmadulla was worked
out, its shafts were filled, its sumps removed, and
rice was planted over the old workings. Today it might
be impossible to locate the old mine site.
Ratnapura (Singhalese for ‘gem town’)
lies about 100 kilometers southeast of Colombo. Its
mining region has produced an incredible variety of
gemstones, many of them outstanding in comparison
with stones from other regions. Sapphire occurs in
all hues of blue, as well as yellow, violet, green,
pink, and the remarkable pinkish-orange “padparadsha.”
Other gemstones include topaz in bright yellow with
a reddish tinge; brownish yellow to cinnamon-colored
grossular; orange-yellow spessartine; blood-red pyrope;
red to brownish red almandine; the world’s finest
zircon in a broad spectrum including brown, yellow,
orange, green, and colorless (known locally as ‘Matara
diamond’– a misnomer); green, yellow,
and brown tourmaline; yellow, green, and brown chrysoberyl;
yellow chrysoberyl cat’s-eye; the unique white
translucent variety of microcline with a blue sheen
known as moonstone; and great quantities of spinel
in brown, green, blue, purple, violet, yellow, pink,
and red. Unusual and rare stones from the same area
include sillimanite, andalusite, scapolite, enstatite,
kornerupine, diopside, and sinhalite. Recently a 5000-carat
cat’s-eye chrysoberyl, the size of a man’s
fist, was taken from a mine near Ratnapura.
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“Gemming”
a river. Disturbing the gravels with poles causes
waste to float away, leaving gems to be gathered
from river bed.
Photo: Edward Gübelin
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| The crown jewels of many monarchs
gleam with extraordinary spinels, sapphires, and zircons
mined from Sri Lanka streams. The Imperial Treasury of
the Soviet Union houses a 400-carat red spinel of great
beauty which was once given to Catherine the Great. The
British Imperial Crown features a giant oval-cut spinel
(previously supposed to be a ruby), known as the “Black
Prince.” Crowns in the Green Vaults of Dresden are
covered with sapphires from Sri Lanka. |
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Map
of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), showing the location of
important cities and mining areas. |
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Local
lapidaries cut most of the island’s gem rough.
Striving for maximum weight in each finished stone,
cutters frequently align the faces poorly with the center
of the stone. Therefore, many stones must be recut,
causing a weight loss, before reaching their full potential.
The forests of Sri Lanka are being felled in the vanguard
of an expanding population. As natural habitat vanishes,
so go the remaining wild elephants, pythons, crocodiles,
bears, leopards, wild boars, and other wildlife. With
these changes, much of Sri Lanka’s primitive charm
will disappear. But many untouched gem areas remain
and await exploitation. In all probability the Jewel
Box will continue to give up its precious treasures
for centuries to come. |
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Padparadscha
sapphire crystal
Size: 8 by 5 cm
Locality: Sri Lanka
Collection: Paul Ruppenthal
Photo: Studio Hartmann |
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