Ruby is one of the most prized gemstones and the rarest on the market, So perhaps it would be wise to take an interest in African rubies still affordable today. Indeed, in its finest quality, ruby is rarer than diamond and especially the Birman rubies of the Mogok Valley of pigeon blood color (an exceptional intense red).
From a crystallographic and chemical point of view, the ruby belongs to the corundum family, the same as the sapphire. It is an oxide of aluminum AL2O3. A corundum may just as easily be colorless. Due to traces of iron, titanium, chromium (ruby), cobalt or vanadium the incolor corundum stone become blue, pink, purple or red … Its density is 4 and its hardness is 9 on the scale of Mosh (the hardest stone after the diamond) It is a generally inclusive gem of which the purest specimens negotiate several tens (even hundreds) of thousands of dollars per carat.
Thus, rubies of more than 3 carats are very rare (30 to 50 times rarer !!!) and the prices to the carat of the beautiful stones blaze, well exceeding the price of the diamond!
What are the main ruby deposits?
Burma (Myanmar) : this is the best known and especially the mines of the Mogok region. The Mong Hsu mine in the northeast is now the largest. Production continues to decline and Burmese rubies are becoming increasingly scarce.
Thailand or Siam produced beautiful rubies, often of a fairly dark color, but the production there became very weak or nonexistent
Viet Nam , with geological soils near Burma produces rubies of fine quality. There are also rubies in northern Pakistan, Kashmir, Tajikistan, Laos, Nepal, and Afghanistan. Madagascar: the main deposits are in the province of Andilamena, north-east of the capital Antananarivo. The rubies are for the most part reddish-brown to purplish, and very inclusive (often treated), but sometimes very crystalline rubies, sparkling like spinel, emerge from the earth. In the most beautiful qualities, their color varies from bright red orange to raspberry.
Mozambique : Within a few years, Mozambique has become one of the leading ruby producing countries. It produces many of the rubies used in jewelry and fine jewelry. Some very crystalline rubies of a deep red slightly orange have nothing to envy the Ruby Burmese.
Tanzania and Kenya Tanzania does not produce only tanzanite and Kenya does not produce only Tsavorite. There are also ruby deposits of a beautiful red. The oldest ruby deposits in Africa are found in Tanzania. The first rubies were discovered at Mount Longido on the Kenyan border at the beginning of the 20th century. In Kenya and Tanzania most deposits are unfortunately exhausted. It has been extracted until the 80s rubies fairly large and quite exceptional.
Like their cousins from Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania, the purest rubies of Madagascar, 2 karats and more, are traded at high or even high prices without reaching the prices of Burmese stones. But until when?
Ruby being rare and in addition very trafficked and treated, I advise you to require a laboratory certificate at the time of purchase!
