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Burma
Ruby Mine
Mining
Rubies
Myanmar
Mines
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Major mines have been in several countries and
mining started long time ago nobody
know when, but everyone know since
then there is something special
taken out from mother earth, usually
by alluvial mining which means
simply
washed out from the gravel and mud. |
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Probably most ruby mines are in
Myanmar or Burma,
Sri Lanka and Madagascar. The top
quality rubies come from Burma at
Mogok which is about 120km north of
Mandalay in central Myanmar. Ruby
mining there could be traced back to
the Stone and Bronze Age via tools
found in the Mogok mining tract.
After mining rubies in
Myanmar many are smuggled into
Thailand and available in Bangkok
and
Chanthaburi.
Mining rubies
has one parameter in all countries,
it is almost impossible to find a stone of excellent
quality over 3 carats without inclusions. This means minor inclusions are acceptable and if there is one without inclusions over 3 carat usually something is wrong, either heat treated or synthetic ruby, yes there is a ruby mine in various labs, actually most rubies for industrial and scientific purposes such a lasers and bearings for expensive watches are made from synthetic stones.
In ancient times India was considered to be the source but traders just brought the stones in from neighboring Myanmar or Burma and after it became an Indian stone, that's the same with Chinese Jade, there is no quality jade in China,
they only have nephrite
which is a lesser quality stone and
is called
Chinese jade. since at least about 500 years, it's all Burmese or Myanmar jade smuggled into China from Myanmar.
Since there is
a long historical record
there are also plenty of
myths, in Sanskrit a ruby is ratnaraj translated to "king
of gemstones". |
Where do this gemstones
come from?
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They
come from the mines district in
upper Burma, which is everything
north of Mandalay, the ruby land
starts about 120km north of
Mandalay. The Ruby Mines District as
at present constituted forms a large
capital L, of which the upright arm
lies along the east bank of the
Irrawaddy from 24° 1' north down to
22° 44' north.
The horizontal
arm runs eastward from the Irrawaddy
from about 95° 58' east as far as
96° 46' east and lies between north
latitude 22° 43' north and 23° 2'
north. The area of the District
proper is estimated at 1,916 square
miles.
The Ruby Mines District
forms a part of the Mandalay
Division of Upper Burma. On
the north it is bounded by
the Katha District; on the
east, that is to
say, all along the |
Mogok
Ruby mine |
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Rubies mines
district |
inner portion of
the re-entrant angle of the
L, by Momeik; on the south
by Hsipaw
and further west by the
Mandalay District, and on
the west by the districts of
Shwebo and Katha.
With the
exception of a thin strip of
land extending from the
mouth of the Zin chaung at
about 23° 9' north up to the
Ne-gya timing at 23° 37'
north, with an average
breadth of about 2 miles,
half way down the west
border of the district, the
whole area lies east of the
Irrawaddy. The reason of the
apparently anomalous
inclusion of this small
strip of land west of the
Irrawaddy will be explained
below in the history of the
formation of the present
district out of a series of
separate jurisdictions. |
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One of the most interesting red stones found are
star rubies
which
show a six-ray or more symmetrical star and the center of the star moves when the stone is moved.
A perfect star ruby is very rare, cut is usually oval but other shapes can be found.
They
come from the Mogok region
in
upper Myanmar north of
Mandalay.
officially come from Thailand, a main source for rubies but most of them are
smuggled or officially imported from Myanmar since Thailand has only very small
deposits. Ceylon or Sri Lanka which is even called island of gems has long been famous since ancient
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Star rubies |
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Burma
ruby mines
with rubies |
times for mining rubies. Starting
from the north-east corner, which is
formed by the junction of the Shweli
river with the Irrawaddy at
approximately 23° 48' north, the
district boundary ascends the course
of the Shweli, dividing the Tagaung
Township of the Ruby Mines District
from Katha, until it reaches the
northernmost bend of the Shweli at
24° 1' north, where the trijunction
of Momeik and the districts of Ruby
Mines and Katha is located; thence,
ascending the course of the Shweli
as it runs almost due south, the
boundary follows that river to the
Laungdaw U Pagoda at 23° 43' north,
dividing the Tagaung Township from
Momeik. From Laungdaw U Pagoda the
boundary runs inland passing through
the southern end of the Kyauktaung
reserve, and thence, following the
boundary between the Ilintha reserve
on the west and Ondok reserve on the
east, it runs up to Thatin taung at
23° 33' 45" ; thence the boundary
cuts across the southern portion of
the Ondok |
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reserve in an irregular
line through jungle
cutting across the Salin or Tadaunggwe dtaung to
Kyaukpon taung at 23° 30' north, and
bends southward down the Kyaukpon
taung ridge to meet the Ondok
reserve south boundary near forest
pillar No. 39; thence it follows the
south boundary of the Ondok reserve
up to forest pillar No. 8 at the
source of the south branch of the
Tadaunggwe chasing; thence it passes
south along the watershed between
the system of streams such as the
Nathlaing, Yingyan, Tongan and
Nanpan chaungs on the east which
flow westwards into the Shweli and
the system of streams such as the
Tauktakugyi, Thannada and
Taung-ya-gyi chaungs on the west
which flow into the Irrawaddy,
following this watershed
continuously southwards until the
summit of the very conspicuous peak
known as Shwe-u-daung A 6223 on
sheet No. 238, Burma Survey, is
reached at about 23° 2' north.
Momeik is north east of Mogok
Mogok
ruby district,
Burmese ruby
land.,
mining rubies |
At
Shwe-u-daung or Bodaw-gyi the
boundary takes a sudden bend to the
east dividing the Momeik from the
Mogok Subdivision. The line runs
eastwards along the Shwe-u-daung
ridge which divides the basin of the
Ondan clraung on the south from the
basins of the Tonka and Nansit
chaungs on the north, all of them
being feeders of the Kin stream,
passing through the peaks known as
Hnitmadaw-gyi the line runs down the
ridge known as the Aw-yaw-lamaung,
forming the south watershed of the
The-Byu chafing, to the termination
of the said ridge on the left bank
of the Kin chafing at the junction
of the The-byu chafing with the Kin
chasing; thence down the Kin chafing
to the mouth of the Mi-In chafing
and eastwards up the Mi-In chasing
to the point where the Shwenyaungbin
cltaung and the Nam-mi-an join to
form the Mi-In chasing; thence along
the top of the ridge lying between
the last mentioned two streams to Loipek or Htin-YuTaung; thence along
the top of the ridge forming the
south watershed of the Onma, IIwe
Kam, and the |
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Kyauktaing.chasings
to the hill known as Loilam (or
Kyauktwin) south of Manpein village;
thence down a dry watercourse known
as the Chauk-pya chafing to its
junction with the Thapan chasing,
and down the Thapan chasing to its
junction with the Kywetnapa or
Yetagun cltaung; thence a straight
line to the point where the road
from Kywetnapa to Maingnwe cuts the
Datpok chafing; thence up the
Thitsidaung ridge to Kyauk taxing;
thence a straight line to Konnyo
taxing; thence a straight line to
Tampara taxing; thence along the
Lon-Niu ridge via Kyaukwa-Mansct
taung to where it runs down to the
Namlon (or Chaunggyi chafing) at the
place called Kyaukpya; thence
descending the Namlon or Chaunggyi
chasing to the point where the Gwe-maw
or Nam-i chasing flows into it;
thence a straight line to the
hillock known as Konsan; thence up
the ridge to a demarcation post
fixed just south of the burial
ground of Upper Nami village; thence
to the rocky place known as
Kyauk-hta-yan on the Mak-hin-po-
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nyi
or Kyauk MaungHnit-Ma chafing;
thence a straight line to the Sin
taxing or Elephant Hill; thence a
straight line to the junction of the Chein chmnng with that source of the
Owe-Maw chafing known as the Hwe Vai;
thence up the Hwe Vai chafing to its source
at I-Itin-Yu taxing near the
old site of Pantara village; thence
a straight line across the Htin-Yu
taxing ridge to the source of the
Nam-po or Yi Po chasing on the
opposite (east) side of the Tin-Yu
taxing ridge and down the Nam-po
chasing to its junction with the
Nam-Si-An or Pon-Si-An chafing and
down the latter chafing to its
junction with the Nampe chasing.
The south boundary
of the ruby
mine district starts from the
junction of the Nam-Si-An chaung
with the Nampe chasing and descends
along the course of the Nampe, which
divides the Mogok Subdivision of the
district from the Monglong
jurisdiction of Hsipaw, as far west as the
point 22° 45' north and 96° 15' cast
at the junction of the Letkat
chasing with the Nampe chaung, which
forms the tri junction of the
jurisdictions of Hsipaw,
Mandalay District, and the Myanmar ruby
mines district. |
From Mogok Ruby Mine |
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From this point the
boundary runs north-west round the
north watershed of the Lapet erasing
which is an affluent of the Letkat,
itself a feeder of the Nampe, up to
the peak marked A 3230 on the cast
boundary of Chaunggyi Forest
Reserve; thence the district
boundary follows southwards round
the east and south boundaries of the
said forest reserve abutting on the
Mandalay District up to the point
where the Chaunggyi chasing enters
the. Irrawaddy about eight miles
south of Thabeitkyin, at which point
the three jurisdictions of the
rubies
mines, Mandalay, and Shwebo
Districts meet.
The west boundary of the
ruby district
runs from this point northwards up
the main channel of the Irrawaddy,
which divides it from the Shwebo
District, to the mouth of the Zin
cursing which enters the Irrawaddy
from the west at 23° 9' north. From
this
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Shwebo District Irrawaddy
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point the boundary runs in a
straight line to the
southern extremity of the
crest of the Minwun range of hills immediately north of
the Zin stream in the neighborhood
of its mouth; thence this crest to
the source of the Nekya stream which
is followed to its mouth in the
Irrawaddy. From this point the
district boundary continues up the
main channel of the Irrawaddy till
the mouth of the Shweli is reached
abutting on the Katha District."
The ruby
mine district proper consists of
two tracts essentially
different in character and
configuration. The river tract,
which forms the Thabeitkyin
Subdivision with the townships of
Tagaung on the north and Thabeitkyin
on the south, is a long
comparatively narrow strip of land
running north and south bordering
the Irrawaddy, and extending back
roughly to an average width of about
15 miles, lying west of the
watershed between the Shweli and the
Irrawaddy. This
may be considered the upright
portion of the L, while its south
arm is formed by the mass of rugged
hill stretching eastwards from
opposite Thabeitkyin on the river
towards the Bernardmyo plateau and
culminating in the conspicuous peak
of Taungme, though there are
other conspicuous hills such as Loi-Chau and Shwe-U-daung which also attract attention.
The Irrawaddy washes the western
boundary of the district from north
to south. In the upper part of its
course where it first enters the
district it is comparatively broad
and dotted with islands, while the
lower part lies confined between
rocky banks which gradually become
steeper and converge towards and
below the south boundary of the
district to form what is known as
the first defile. In the northern
part of the Tagaung Township,
enclosed between the north bend of
the Shweli and the Irrawaddy, there
is a triangle of almost flat and
tolerably arid country which seems
to favour the growth of the in tree.
The base of the triangle lies along
the north edge of the foot-hills
which form the north watershed of
the Maing-daing tract and culminate
at Tagaung tatnig.
The
Burmese ruby
district
triangle itself consists of
undulating country which in parts,
especially in the southern portion,
is waterlogged in the rains, but
almost completely dries up in the
hot weather and where drinkable
water is scarce and which without
any well-defined natural features is
for the most part absolutely.
uninhabited except along its edges
and traversed by few routes. Along
its two northern sides the triangle
ends with a well-defined abrupt
transition from the indaing growth
on arid soil to a depressed shelf of
annually inundated country, chiefly
covered with kaing grass and
extensively pitted with hollows,
some of them, such as the Indaung
In-ma and the Yaukthwasaung In-Ma,
of considerable area and depth.
Along the Shweli this submerged area
is somewhat narrow and the ins or
hollows are comparatively
unimportant. But from the Shweli
mouth southwards the inundated area
broadens out to a stretch in some
places of about two miles between
the river and the rising indaing
ruby mine
tract, which is the seat of the
extensive and hereafter probably
increasingly valuable fisheries of
the Tagaung Township. This submerged
shelf is some feet under water for
weeks at a time and the majority of
the villages, as might be expected,
are found along the |
banks of the Irrawaddy.
Burmese ruby and
gold washing |
People do extensive fishing
and timber extraction, with
the result that a very
wasteful denudation of the
forest areas easily
accessible from the river
took place, mainly in order
to supply the Mandalay
market with the less
valuable kinds of wood.
Latterly, however, the
formation of extensive
forest reserves and a closer
supervision of extraction
has restricted the
opportunities of the timber
cutters and the people are
now beginning to exploit
what no doubt, from the
agricultural point of view,
is a particularly favorable area for the
growth of mayin paddy, were it not
that it is exposed to abnormal and
capricious rises of the Irrawaddy.
These characteristics rule as far
south, roughly, as the south
boundary of the Tagaung Township.
Inland, and almost due east of
Tagaung, there 13 a separate
landlocked hollow known as the
Myanmar ruby Maing-daing tract, lying at a
slightly higher elevation than the
strictly riverine portion, and
difficult of access from any
direction except along the line of
the Kyauk-O chaung which enters the
Irrawaddy at Tagaung. |
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This area is
entirely distinct from the riverine
Burma ruby
tract and at one time is said to
have been extremely flourishing and
populous and to have supplied a
considerable part of the paddy
required for consumption in
Mandalay. It is now practically
uninhabited and at present of no
economic importance, all the hilly
country surrounding the basin of the
tract having already been taken up
for the formation of forest
reserves. Actually also everyone try
to find rubies. The northern part of the Thabeitkyin Township, which forms
the prolongation of the riverine
part of the district southwards,
conforms in general characteristics
to that of the Tagaung Township,
except that, as the general level of
the country on the eastern bank of
the Irrawaddy gradually rises, this
area is not subject to inundation by
that river to any appreciable
extent, but being fairly flat and
open is devoted to a much larger
extent than any other |
Burma Ruby Mine
Selection with
Burmese rubies. |
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portion of the
district to
agriculture and
especially to the
cultivation of
paddy. But the amount of cultivation
is not extensive, as the country is
cut up by a succession of small
torrents dry during the hot weather,
which come down in spate in the
rains and constantly destroy the
fields which with great difficulty
the villagers have constructed on
either bank. By the time one gets as
far south as Sabenago, opposite Male
in the Shwebo District, the southern
limit of
Myanmar ruby land may be said to have been
reached. The first defile may be
said to start from this point, and
from here southwards we meet the
western termination of that long
backbone of hills which forms the
Mogok Subdivision proper and
includes the south portion of the Momeik. Between Sabenago and the
south of the
district the
villages are few in
number and
insignificant in
size. Situated
mainly in infrequent
hollows in the
foot-hills where,
with trouble and
care, the
inhabitants have
been able
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to carve
out a few fields to provide a meagre
sustenance for the resident
population. The only place of note
is Thabeitkyin, which is formed by
an aggregation of four villages and
owes its importance entirely to the
fact that it is the export for the
Ruby Mines Tract,
being the point at which the
Tonga road from Mogok, 60
miles away, meets the
Irrawaddy. From what has
been said above, it will be
observed that, It with the |
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Myanmar ruby jewelry |
exception of the two great rivers
which skirt the district, the
waterways are of inconsiderable
length and little importance. With
the exception of the Irrawaddy and and
the Shweli none of them are
navigable. The Shweli is navigable
for small launches as far as Mabein
and in high water, Myitson. The most considerable of the streams
that actually lie within or cut
across the district is the Kin chaung which, rising almost on the
south edge of the district near the
village of Yewe, passes north across
the Myanmar ruby Mogok Subdivision, crossing the
Tonga road at mile 37, and
thereafter cuts its way through a
narrow and rocky gorge into the Momeik plain near Sagadaung whence,
swollen by the junction of other
streams that drain Momeik, it flows
into the Shweli near Myitson. The
Nampe or Mabye chaung rises in the
Ngadaung tract of the Momeik and for
some distance forms the southern
boundary of the district. Lower down
it is known as the Madaya Mating in
Mandalay District all this is more
or less Myanmar ruby land.
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The Thabeitkyin Township is divided
from Momeik by N a line of hills
which run southwards from the north
bend of the Shweli until they meet
the main axial range at Shwe-Utaung.
The main ridge of this line forms
the watershed between the Shweli and
the Irrawaddy. It throws out just
north of Tagaung a semi-circular
projection which terminates
at the comparatively low but
isolated and conspicuous hill known
as Tagaung toting, which
forms an outstanding feature as seen
from steamers on the Irrawaddy. The
main watershed itself gradually
increases in height as it runs
southward, but contains no hill of
special interest until Shwe-U-daung
is reached. In the Myanmar ruby area
the most prominent peaks
lie a little east of the main
watershed and are Ilmaing-daing, which however is not
specially noticeable from the river,
and Thaungbwet taung, which
indicates the lint of demarcation
between the Tagaung and Thabeitkyin
Townships. Due cast of Twinngc there
is a dip in this watershed where, at
a height of only about 950 feet, the
main road from Momeik to the
Irrawaddy crosses the ridge at
Thitkwebin Sakan. |
Burma ruby
jewelry,
Burmese ruby |
Burma
Ruby
Stone,
gem stones |
At right angles to the above
watershed runs the confused mass of
hills with a general trend from west
to cast, rising from the Irrawaddy
in the lower half of the
Thabeitk_vin Subdivision and
possessing two marked ranges divided
by the Kin chafing. which flows from
south to north. The westernmost of
these immediately borders the south
of the Momeik plain and has three
very prominent peaks which are
specially noticeable as the
traveler passes along the main road
to Mogok for a Myanmar ruby. These are, in order from
west to cast, the Hnit-ma-daw-gale, a sharp
jungle-clad point, Shwe U-daung
with a curioas knob-like
protuberance at its summit, and
Hnit-ma-daw-gyi with
conspicuous grassy slopes along its
apex. To the east of the Kin ckaung
the hills rise somewhat more
rapidly, the main axis trending to
the south-east, until they culminate
at Taungme which dominates the Bernardmyo
plateau
and
overshadows
the
Mogok
valley.
The
main
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ridge
passes
almost
due east through Kyini toting, which is the I
head of
the prominent crater that closes the
eastern end of the Mogok valley;
thence running eastwards through
Loichau conspicuous by its steep
cliff face, in the direction
of Hsailon or Thelein and onwards to
the mass of hills known as the
Ngadaung hill tract of the Momeik,
ultimately connects with the north
Shan States Hill System in the
north-cast of Taungbaing State.
Daw-nan-gye faun; immediately south
of Kyatpyin gives the finest view in
the district for the least exertion,
though it cannot in this respect
compare with the peaks of Taungme
and I.oichau. Pingudaung, or Spider
Hill, is a conspicuous isolated hill
immediately north of Kyatpyin. At
one time this was supposed to be the
Ruby Matrix for mining rubies.
Various companies try |
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to tunnel the hill with great hopes. Except, however,
for the discovery of one stone worth
about $ 10,000, the results were
disappointing. The Mogok valley
itself, which is the main seat of
the mining rubies industry, is enclosed
between two high ridges, the
northern of which joins Taungme to
Kyini tang, while the southern one
trends off from the latter peak in a
south south-westerly direction and
culminates at Loi-kon-sana.
'this ridge forms the east watershed
of the various streamlets that drain
the Mogok valley and combine to form
the Yeni chaung which, after a
course of about 18 miles, finally
enters the Nampe chaung on the
southern border,
Ruby Mines
and Myanmar ruby, Burma
ruby mine, mining rubies.
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