One day early last centaury gem and
jewellery traders were elated!. A method to produce gems had just been
discovered by French scientist August Verneuil. Just mix up ingredients
needed to produce corundum and run through a flame produced by LP/O2
gas mixture… powders melt and forms gems in a matter of minutes!. They
called it ‘Flame fusion processes’. Ruby and sapphire thus produced were
so real, so free of inclusions, yet costing only a few hundredth of a
natural of the same colour and quality. People thought ‘Oh, why do we need
a natural when all the physical properties and optical properties are the
same in these new synthetic rubies and sapphires’. Natural gem trade
collapsed within a short period. But some talked about the importance of
the naturalness of a gem. They said ‘we don’t want man made things to
replace our natural beauties’. Gemmologists had to intervene to identify
these products. They found curved growth lines and tiny gas bubbles, the
types which do not exist in natural gems. This resulted in the natural gem
trade slowly recovering. But it took years!!.
Some
years latter another product appeared. They called it ‘cultured rubies’ or
‘cultured emerald’, or ‘created rubies’ or ‘created emerald’ but not
synthetic!!. ‘This time it is different’ they said. The gems are produced
exactly the way they are produced in nature, crystals! Yes crystals are
forming in a solution consisting of a mixture of ingredients. They called
it a ’Flux growth process’.
The
stones were even better, than Verneuil’s, much like Burmese rubies,
slightly darkish. And the cost was much more than that of flame fusion’s
because this takes several months to form a crystal like in nature, but
still the cost was a fraction of its natural counterpart. This time people
did not get excited as much. They said ‘anyway it is also a synthetic’.
But found it to be a better stimulant. Gemmologists had another task! This
time they found unusual wavy feathers formed by flux residues, and pieces
of platinum that came from the crucible. It did not affect the natural gem
trade very much but infact gave the trade a better simulant
Gemmologists could
not rest long! Soon unusually beautiful lots and lots of blue sapphire
were invading the market. They found that the colour was confined to the
surface, infact only a few hundredths of a millimeter, easily observed
while immersing in methylene iodide. Also there were altered inclusions
due to exposure to high temperature. They said it is a ‘surface diffusion’
of colour giving elements to low color natural gemstones. Before too long
came diffused rubies too following the foot steps of blue sapphire, its
corundum cousin. But by then every one knew how to detect them within a
matter of minutes if not seconds. Before there was a huge impact on the
gem trade, the matter was sorted by gemologists! The gemologists rested
happily on their laurels!!
It took a while for
the next bomb to hit the industry. Unusually beautiful honey colour cat’s
eyes were flooding the market. Soon we in Sri Lanka got the information
that they are highly radio active. We being the largest producer of best
cat’s eyes, were going to be affected badly. I ran to the University of
Moratuwa and borrowed a Geiger counter (I was the Chairman of NGJA then).
True enough! Geiger counter which normally goes tik…tik…(like seconds
ticking in a clock) with zircon, went into a mad cry like a machine gun
firing. It was dangerous!, We announced to the world that all the cat’s
eyes leaving our shores are tested for irradiation. We saved our day for
cat’s eyes perhaps until another disaster strikes.
It
did not take that long. Only a year or so, now lots and lots of orange
sapphires and reddish-orange sapphires (similar to padmaraja) were coming
out of Thailand. Industry panicked. Japanese, the largest buyer of such
stones by then had sold thirty-forty thousands of such stones very
recently. They recalled all the stones from the customers. Debates were
going on, as to how suddenly so much of such stones came to the market
when they are normally rare.
Thais were accused of a new treatment, but they denied it!. Then some
gemologists of USA found that these stones have high levels of beryllium.
These gemologists heat treated low quality sapphires with beryllium.
Beautiful orange sapphires and padmaraja-like colours materialized!. Not
only that they said ‘some stones turned into blue sapphire colour as
well!! ‘Yes it is beryllium diffusion’, they announced to the world. Thais
still denied doing anything wrong, but under pressure from international
trade, they said ‘yes we found quite out accidentally that when low
quality sapphires were heat treated, they turned into these orange and
reddish-orange colours, when unintentionally sapphire-like chrysoberyl
were with them’. ‘Cat out of the bag’! Then they said ‘we do not add
anything artificially, all are natural minerals, some use alumina powder
in other heat treatment and it is not called diffusion, and what we doing
is not real diffusion but a natural heat treatment’.
Gemmologists and traders said that they couldn’t be duped with it. Bangkok
lost their reputation while the debate was on., International traders
stopped trading with them. Lapidaries had to suspend work, no materials
were coming in to Thailand for cutting!!. Thai’s cried foul and begged to
their parliament to intervene and declare that they are not doing anything
unethical. No, they could not go on, finally they admitted that what was
discovered accidentally, has been put in to practice surreptitiously. They
were forced to accept that it was a case of diffusion even if natural
chrysoberyl is used along with low quality sapphires. International gem
trade community wanted them to declare their treatment. They agreed and in
about two years, trade came back to normalcy. Beryllium diffusion came to
be known as bulk diffusion because the layer of diffusion was much deeper
than that of surface diffusion, sometimes the whole stone. Subsequently
gemologists decided to call it ‘lattice diffusion’. So the trade became
enriched with a lot of beautiful gems known as lattice diffused sapphires.
This time it was not easy for gemologists, it took month after month.
Identification of stones was easy under microscope, if the whole stone is
not
coloured in to the
core. But if whole body was coloured be level had to be detected and took
about US$ 500 or more. Many people including gemologists came to know
about LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometry), LA-ICP-MS (Laser
Ablated Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometry, SIMS (Secondary Ion mass
Spectrometry) and many other analytical techniques hitherto used for the
elemental analysis in chemistry can also be used in the detection of
beryllium up to 5 ppma level. So when you have a perfect beautiful
padmaraja, you need a certificate, why? It may be lattice diffused!! So it
may cost US$ 500-1000 per test. A stone which is full of colour to the
core, under microscope will tell you, it is heated due to altered
inclusions, but to see if the Be content is higher than normal, you have
to go for high tech analytical methods. Now how did we, the Sri Lankan
attack this problem?.
We got all the heat
treaters to register with the NGJA and also declare that hey do not engage
in Be diffusion, and if they do they will declare it to be so. Then we
declared to the international community that all the stones are channeled
through NGJA and we assure that there is no provision for foul play. This
was a crude way doing things, but we had no alternative. We had to scare
the heat treaters telling them that we would cancel their trading licenses
if they are dishonest. We had to do it that way because whole country did
not have a LIBS, LA-ICP-Ms or SIMS!! We regard ourselves as one of the
leading gem producers in the world for many decades and we have resources
to go for a few more decades. But no proper lab yet !! Anyway thanks to
many gemologists the world over we breathed a sigh of relief, our
padmaraja and sapphire industry was saved once more!!
No not for long!.
Then a problem exclusive to Sri Lanka came up. Now nice blue sapphires
were being produced by a heat treater in Ratnapura. Unlike something
international trade had never seen before, ‘too good to be just heat
treated’ they said. Another diffusion process? they suspected. They tested
the stones and found that there is a pale blue
to near colorless layer closely following the girdle outline. In some
gemstones, a much deeper rim of light blue surrounding a deep blue core
was seen. The interface between the core and the rim was undulating and
delineated by a white line. They suspected foul play.
But
the heat treater vouched that he did not add anything other than alumina
powder and he uses a electric furnace. The gemologists were baffled!! At
the request of the renowned gemologists of GIA heat treated samples were
exclusively sent directly to them. Well! , they found the same thing
again! This time they were invited to
Sri Lanka to witness
treatment before, during and after. They held a conference in Colombo
afterward and disclosed that they saw no additions being done to the
crucible except alumina powder and gemstones. They went back with the
samples and tested them and saw the same pale to white ring again. But
they announced that it may be a treatment special to the treater but there
is no diffusion. So we escaped again!!.
How long can we go on like this? Until our resources are
over in 20 ..30…40 years? Are we going to abandon our gem and jewellery
trade after we exhaust our resources? Are we not going to look for gems in
other countries such as Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Laos, Cambodia,
Vietnam, and Myanmar?
They
have so much of gems left. Madagascar will beat them all. They have just
touched the tip of the iceberg! They have just started mining at a rate
during the last 5-10 years. The whole country is full of gems. Everything
that you know, you name, they have it. Diamond, emerald (we never had
them), ruby, sapphire, alexandrite, cat’s eye, and gold no other country
can come close to them. Three years ago, they established a gem
laboratory with the help of GIA and World Bank grant. We are still groping
in the dark!!
The Gemologists Association of Sri Lanka (GASL) (of which I
am a member) started its campaign for a lab about 8 years ago. I still
remember our then President Mr Sherriff Rahuman made his presentation on
the need of a lab, when Hon. Prof. G.L. Peiris was the chief guest at a
function held at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Colombo. I forget which party
professor belonged to then. He agreed that we needed a proper gem lab
urgently. Nothing happened. Since then we approached the Gem trade
association, TIPS(USAID) and another foreign company which certifies
quality of Ceylon Tea for assistance. Failing all that we ( the trade,
NJGA (I was the Chairman of NGJA then) and gemologists) met the secretary
to the treasury
many years ago to convince him the need of a gem lab and to seek funds.
Our budget was Rs 100 million. He agreed with us but said ‘you put 50, I
will give 50’. We came back. Then I brought this matter up at one of our
regular meetings of NJGJA where we discuss industry problems. I was asked
whether the NGJA can put up this money
I could not agree
as we had undertaken two major building projects at Ratnapura and the Head
office. Then I suggested that we will get additional ¼% from exports of
gems and jewllery for a lab fund (1/4% was already being levied as a
service charge by the NGJA). The trade representatives agreed to go back
to their membership and report back. At the next meeting everybody agreed
they will contribute an additional ¼% on exports to a laboratory fund. I
got the approval of the treasury to collect it as a fund without VAT.
……….Years has passed by! Over Rs 100 million has been collected to the
fund, but no lab yet! Every one of us who was in the forefront of this
matter knew that particularly in Sri Lanka such a lab cannot survive on
the income of issuing certificates only. An investment of Rs 100 million,
depreciation, maintenance, need of an expert to head the institution (at a
much higher pay than many scientists get in Sri Lanka), lab was going to
cost a lot of money to run. I thought every body including the trade,
virtually agreed that even after the lab is established, we will not
discontinue the ¼% contribution for the lab. But collect it to maintain
and assist the running of the lab, so that we need not have rely upon
government funds for the same (we would not have received a government
grant anyway).
I have heard lately
that the government wants to go ahead without the involvement of the
private sector, the contributors to the fund. The traders who did not
agree with this have requested to stop the contribution (which has already
been done), and they want their early contributions refunded.
The members of the
Gemologists Association burnt a lot of midnight oil and sweated a lot to
formulate the project proposal with the consultation of world renowned
gemologists from overseas. I doubt very much about the survival of a
laboratory, even if it is established, with its earnings alone. The
government will not certainly want to provide additional funds to run the
laboratory. Take the case of Gemmological Institute of Thailand(GIT) , one
of the best gem laboratory in Asia if not the world, established only four
years ago at cost of over US$ 1 million. It is administered by government
nominees and certain members from the trade. The government funded it
until it took off the ground. I reliably understand that the Thai
government has decided to stop funding and the lab has been asked to be
self sustained. It is fully functional now but apparently its revenue is
about 10% of its expenditure. They are wondering how to manage it on their
own.
So I
beg the authorities, please we must not create an institute which will
require the government funding to run. We do have several research
institutes barely running just for the sake of keeping them opened, one in
the cool climes of the hill country and another in the suburb of Colombo
named after a famous foreigner residing in Sri Lanka, to name a few
All I request is
that they must amicably resolve the disputes and get the trading community
involved so that the influence of politics will not creep into the
administration and the issue of certificates. Otherwise the international
trade will not recognize and trust our certificates. The expertise
required to run an institution of this magnitude will not be available to
be recruited at the present government salaries. They must also discuss
and restore the ¼% levy for the laboratory fund and not be in a position
like GIT finds itself in today. The very presence of a good lab which is
internationally recognized will have a very valuable deterrent effect.
Its mere presence
will assure the buyer that he can safely offer a higher price for a gem
and get it tested in Sri Lanka itself. Otherwise when we try to get a
certificate from abroad buyer will not wait that long and go to another
country. There will no longer be the ‘we don’t know if this is O.K’, ‘but
we have to get recognized laboratory testing-so we give less now and if it
is O.K when we check, we will come back for more gems from you’ !!. We
don’t know how many millions we may have lost over many decades due to our
stalling!!, but lets say ‘Its never too late’, we can have recognized
laboratory and we can do business combining technology with marketing and
business skills. Gem industry cannot survive without gemmologists and
gemmology laboratories!!
(Author wishes to
thank Rosemary Dharmaratne for editing this and adding spice to it!)
Reproduced with
king permission from the
National Gem and Jewellery Authority of Sri Lanka.
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