Dear all,
I'm happy to invite you to discover the most recent field video on my new YouTube Channel:
In this short video you will discover the ruby and sapphire deposit around Pailin in Cambodia that I visited in April 2017 to collect reference samples for the Bahrain Institute for Pearls & gemstones (DANAT). The area is fascinating for people interested in the way gemstones are mined for many reasons: First, the legend about the discovery is presents an interesting link between gem mining and conservation. After many years of mechanized gem mining at the end of the 20th century when the area was disputed between Khmer Rouge and Pro Vietnamese troops, the region has become plagued with land mines.
Today thanks to the gems found in rivers, many survivors from these terrible years are making a living mining rubies and sapphire in a very unusual way as they work season after season the same gem traps they dig in the river beds. Indeed during each rainy season these traps get refilled in heavy mineral and thus they can be mined again. Working in these pits is great for them as there the fact that they lost a leg or a foot is not too much of a burden.
Many thanks for this video to all the people we met in Cambodia for their support and more particularly to Sovanny.
Enjoy
