The South - Madagascar - page 350

but providing you are sensible over security it is worth a visit for the Wild West atmo-
sphere. Every other shop has the word saphir above its doorway, and the quantity of high-
priced consumer goods for sale is remarkable. If you decide to stay, LesJokers has rooms
with air conditioning and TV.
SAPPHIREMINETOUR ( m 0331473757/0331478042/0320262485; e colorlineil-
[e-mail] ) Sapphire company Color Line runs visits to the open mines allowing
you to see first-hand the massive effort (and danger) involved in finding these tiny gems.
A visit costs 24,000Ar per person and takes about an hour. The company also does cutting
and polishing demonstrations in their showroom. Enquire at the bar called Al 2 O 3 .
GEMSTONES
Tim Ireland
The crystalline rocks and gravels available to today's miners, sifters and washers-of-
gravel were once 10-30km deep within the earth - not necessarily underground but
perhapsattheheartofancient mountains nowerodedaway.Millions ofyearsago,the
landflexedupwardssotherocksnowonthesurfacewereinfactformedundertensof
kilometres of other rock in conditions of great pressure and great heat - ideal for the
formation of crystalline gems. Gemstones are, by their nature, dense and durable, so
they survive the ravages of time. Mountains and rocks were gradually ground down
and washed away towards the sea and in some areas of the west coast gem-hunters
have to trace and chase the old river channels in search of deposits of the hard, bright
and valuable survivors of barely imaginable eruptions and upheavals.
Elsewhere, traditional mining is necessary. To retrieve gemstones at Ilakaka, for
example, an exploratory shaft is sunk until miners recognise a likely combination of
rock types. Then a few bags of local gravel are washed; if the results are good, a pit
is sunk and more work begins. One miner said that half a dozen bags of gravel from
an exploratory hole might yield four million ariary's worth of sapphires. The catch is
that the payload layer is often around 15m deep in the earth, yet only about one metre
thick - a big, deep hole for what might prove to be a small yield.
When a find is made, the Malagasy miners will often arrive in great numbers from
far away, willing to break their backs shifting dirt with shovels for the duration of
the rush - two years? ten years? a hundred years? Curiously, the government has pre-
cluded the use of heavy machinery by the Malagasy people while outsiders are free
to mine in whatever fashion they wish. Thai and Sri Lankan miners use earth-moving
equipmenttodigtheefficientway.Strangeenough;butaddtothistheshadynatureof
the gem industry: riches and smuggling. Instead of Madagascar getting rich now that
its treasures are reaching the marketplace, money floods out of the country at a rate