“Pigeon-blood ruby” is how the red colour-shade of Burma ruby is described. Federico Barlocher, the expert on mining in Burma (now Myanmar) says that the term “old Burma ruby” has a magic to it, eyes pop out, gem dealers drool, what it simply means that it is a gem of tremendous value. It is true any gem dealer, any gemmologist, any connoisseur of gems, any one of the big auction house will tell you that. Ever since glass fi lled rubies and beryllium treated rubies started fl ooding the market, the value of the genuine old Burma rubies has sky rocketed! There are not many who get to visit these famous ruby mines. This article intends to take you for a short visit to Mogok which has picturesque locations. Mr. Barlocher has shared some of these very rare photographs.

Gateway to Ruby land- photo by F. Barlocher

The Mogok valley actually has a gateway to the entrance welcoming the visitor to the world famous ruby land. As one can see from the map the valley of Mogok lies about 200 kilometers northeast of the city of Mandalay, in Myanmar (old name Burma) as it is called today. It takes about seven hours by back breaking road from Mandalay to Mogok.

It’s a back-breaking seven hour drive from Mandalay to Mogok

Millions of years old rubies! All the Burma rubies one wears today were crystallized some millions of years ago. The rough crystals of rubies are embedded in the marble and are the primary deposits which are very diffi cult to mine. Fortunately the terrible torrential monsoons have loosened the rubies from the marble rock and they have carried them down from the hilltops into the Mogok valley. The heavy rocks along with rubies havesettled deep inside the streams which surround the city. This has given rise to the secondary deposits. Therefore the riverbeds have grown thick with mud and gravel forming the ruby rich sediments. These river beds became the traditional source for mining the rubies.

Valley of Mogok and the alluvial mines photo by F. Barlocher

There are several mines that are located around the towns and surrounding hills that range from simple open pits, to single deep shafts, to tunnels that have been blasted out of the marble hillsides. Those mines that are over 300 meters get filled with water after the monsoons and have to be pumped out. Most of the smaller mines are privately owned by Burmese citizens who have paid a license fee to the government.

Ruby mines with tongue twisting names

The richest mines in Mogok are with names like Yadana- Kaday-Kadar, Shwei Pi Aye, Lin Yaung Gyi andf Pyang Guang and have very sophisticated equipment. But by and large the other mines still use primitive methods of digging which helps to retain the good quality. As the rubies are deep inside shafts have to be excavated sometimes about hundreds of meters deep to reach them. Then the broken rock material is actually brought up in baskets even today by primitive ropes. The gravel is then washed and panned to recover the rubies

The Miners live along the periphery of the mine photo by F. Barlocher

How the British acquired ruby mines

During the Bagan Dynasty nearly 1000years ago rubies were worn only by the royalty. When the British annexed upper Burma in the latter half of 19th century ruby mining was handed over a London based company called Burma Ruby Mines Ltd., which had a monopoly till the 1930s. This led to the world wide popularity of ruby!

Mouths covered with Metallic Headwear!

According to Federico Barlocher the Burmese people start mining at an early age even small 8-10 year kids are agents! So by the timer they are in their twenties they are truly professional ruby dealers. One can find children roaming about with fairly large sized rubies to sell. And they carry the precious parcel in their mouths! The British were well aware of this method of hiding the rubies in the mouth. In fact there is an ancient photo which shows how the miners’ heads were covered with a big metallic cover so that they did not put the rubies in their mouths to steal them!

Old photo: miners covered with metallic headwear to avoid stealing photo by F. Barlocher

Some of the amazing facts about the miners what Mr. Barlocher had to say was that the miners live in huts on site, some times in the mines so that they can start very early in the morning and can work late. Every miner will consider a mine as a religious place and will have a statue of Lord Buddha inside sometimes they even work bare foot! Never realizing what risk it is to go about barefoot, the miner in complete devotion to his work has no regard for safety. Apart from ruby Myanmar has numerous other gem material, blue sapphire, yellow sapphire, spinel, peridot, jade to name a few. Due to political problems, poverty and exploitation has kept the miners and the locals in the under developed state. It is indeed a fact worldwide that most of the places where gemstones are being mined there is extreme poverty. Therefore locals are ready to risk their lives to get the choicest gems in anticipation of getting the bare necessities of life.