Ethiopia has recently evolved into one of the most interesting gem-producing countries, with large reserves of sapphire and emerald coming onto the market. Ethiopian dealers, exporters, and governments are gathering knowledge about new deposits, other gem varieties, and gemstone manufacturing to make the most of these immense gemstone resources. In February 2017, GIA received news of a sapphire discovery near Aksum and collaborated with the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas in Addis Ababa to set up an expedition to the sapphire, opal, and emerald sources. In March 2018, a team of four GIA gemologists and videographers traveled to Ethiopia to visit its gem sources. The first target was the sapphire deposit in the north. Rumors of the discovery reached the trade in early 2017, and the first stones were seen in the Asian markets of Chanthaburi (Thailand) and Beruwala (Sri Lanka) in April 2017.
Since the initial discovery near Chila, sapphires have been found in many localities throughout Tigray Province. The sapphires are mined and traded north of Axum, near the town of Chila. During the local weekly market, crowds gather in the main street to buy and sell goods ranging from livestock to handicrafts—and, since late 2016, Ethiopian sapphires. Ethiopian dealers have set up offices in Chila, where they buy gems at the Saturday market The trade there is limited to sapphire and the occasional red garnet. Local dealers take the goods to Addis Ababa, where foreign buyers can purchase and export the stones. Most of the foreign buyers are Sri Lankans and Thais, who will improve the stones’ appearance with heat treatment.
Chila has benefited greatly from the gem trade. Using simple tools such as shovels and picks, the miners dig pits until they reach a gravelly layer. This layer is typically deposited straight on the hard rock basement, at depths of one to three meters. Gem-bearing gravel is loosened and thrown to the surface or passed along in buckets. Miners dump the gravel onto the ground next to the pit, where it is searched by hand for sapphires. Overall the mining techniques are very primitive. Yet it would be difficult to improve the situation under the circumstances. The area’s remoteness makes it challenging to bring in heavier equipment, and fuel supply is irregular. Water is even more scarce and there are no nearby bodies of water where communal washing efforts could be set up. The river is only seasonal, created by flash floods, making it hard to capture the water. The current mining is very strenuous and employs many hands, which means that many locals receive some portion of their income from sapphire mining. The gemstones found in northern Ethiopia are mainly blue sapphires. They also routinely produce black sapphires, whose dark bodycolor is caused by their high content of iron-rich inclusions. The majority of Ethiopian sapphires are blue, with a few pure (dark) yellows. Often one finds stones containing different colors as subtle color zones, or even as full parti-colors. Black bands may occur, caused by high concentrations of particles in certain zones. The locals describe these as “zebra sapphires.” Fully black sapphires and star sapphires have not been observed. The color of the blue sapphires ranges from dark greenish blue to a pleasing light blue. The sapphires are very large, with rough stones ranging from 1 ct to more than 100 ct.
Photo Credits: A 12-gram blue sapphire being passed through a packed crowd in the Chila sapphire market. Photo by Simon Bruce-Lockhart.
High-quality blue sapphires. Photo by Wim Vertriest.
