Gem mining in Thailand is almost finished. The gem mines are almost worked out and few are still operating. This is what I read over again on the Internet. The gemstone experts must be right or are they?

Thailand (Kanchanaburi and Chanthaburi), Burma (Mogok and Namya), Laos (Huay Xai), and Cambodia (Pailin).

Kanchanaburi: The Bo Ploy area 30km north of this very touristy city, known for its bridge over the river Kwai, where the company SAP is still mining a large domain and is converting the areas mined already into a golf course and lake resort. Bo Ploy is now just a shadow of was it was in the past. The area was discovered in 1918, and a small gem rush occurred, but soon the deposit was thought to be depleted. Its rediscovery in 1987 turned the area into a major mining center. After few years of strong activity, the production has decreased. Currently the loss of mining activity has made difficult to find a room to sleep or even a place to eat in Bo Ploy, which is difficult to imagine in Thailand . Besides blue sapphire, large quantities of black spinel known locally as “nin” are mined and most of the time sold on many Thai markets as “onyx”.

Chanthaburi: This area is probably the oldest Thai mining area. Discovered in the middle of the 19th century, it had a strong ruby mining activity after the military took power in Burma in 1962, cutting the supply for Burmese rubies and sapphires. Thai rubies mines near Bo Rai were then the major world source of rubies for nearly 30 years until the arrival of Mong Hsu rubies in the market in early 1990s which was a fatal blow for most ruby mining in Thailand and East Africa. In the Ban Kha Cha area southwest of the city, some mining is visible both small scale and larger scale. Most of the production there is black star sapphire along with some less frequent blue, green, and yellow gems. On the east of Chanthaburi, around Bo Rai, the large mechanized ruby mines visible during the 1970's and 1980's are now only memories. Several small scale mining operations and some individual river mines are still present in some parts of this area.

Other Thai sapphire mining areas: On my last visit to the SAP mine in Kanchanaburi a few months ago, the mine manager informed me that they were currently opening a second sapphire mining operation in north Thailand near Phrae which was known to produce small quantities of sapphire. I did not visit the area yet, but will sometime soon. I was also told of some small sapphire mining in other parts of Thailand. These being in the eastern part of the country close to the Cambodian-Laotian border but I have not been to these areas. http://www.fieldgemology.com/ICA01.php

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