Posted by
MySapphireSource | Tuesday, April 10, 2018
More sapphires over 100 carats in size have come from Sri Lanka than any other location.
423.00 ct Logan Sapphire in the Smithsonian (wikipedia.com)
Sapphires have been mined in Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) for
over 2000 years. These sapphires are known for their brilliance due to
their generally lighter tone than Kashmir or Burmese sapphires. This
lighter tone is, in general, due to a lower iron content found in those
sapphires. The cornflower blue color of these gems is normally
associated with Ceylon sapphires.
Sapphire mining has been and still is a primitive operation. Today
the government actually restricts mechanized mining, partly to keep the
output low so the miners will have work for hopefully hundreds of years.
The island is Sri Lanka has one of the world’s
largest concentrations of gems and over 40 gem species are mined there.
Sapphires are generally recovered from river gravel. Some fashioning
(treatment and cutting) is done locally but much of the output is
treated and cut in Thailand.
Sri Lankan (Ceylon) Sapphire Ring