ThisStatusReportofongoingresearchhasbeenmadeavailablebyGIALaboratoryBangkok.Pleaseensurethatyouareconsultingthelatestversionbycheckingtheresearchpageatwww.giathai.net.

The report indicates the status of a research project that is still ongoing within GIA Laboratory Bangkok. Comments on

this and other reports and their direction are warmly welcomed as are offers of collaboration. Please tact: con info@giathai.net stating the name of the project and name(s) of the author(s).

SapphiresReportedlyfromBatakundi/BasilareaApreliminaryexaminationandacomparisonwithrubiesandpink

sapphiresfromotherdepositsinCentralAsia.

VincentPardieu,KamolwanThirangoon,PantareeLomthong,SudaratSaeseaw,Jitlapit Thanachakaphad, andGaryDuToit

GIALaboratory,Bangkok

Figure1:SeveralroughandfacetedpurplishpinksapphiresreportedtohavebeenminedfromtheBatakundiBasilarealocatedinaborderareabetweenPakistanscontrolledKashmir(AzadKashmir)andPakistansNorthernAreasprovince.ThisremotedepositislocatednotveryfarfromtheNangimalirubyminingarealocatedinPakistancontrolledKashmirclosetothe1972ceasefirelineseparatingtheIndianandPakistancontrolledKashmir.Photo:V.Pardieu

http://www.giathai.net/mailto:info@giathai.net

Introduction:Recently several unusual purple sapphires (Figure 1) were submitted to the GIALaboratory Bangkok for examination byMr Zulfiqar Ali Abbas from KashmirGems(pvt),Ltd(Pakistan).ThestoneswerereportedtohavebeenminedinKashmirnearthevillages of Batakundi and Basil located in Pakistan controlled Kashmir (Figure 1andFigure2).This study focuses on the gemological description of the Batakundi stones seen inApril2009(Figure1)andtheircomparisonwithrubiesandpink/purplesapphiresfromknowndepositsinCentralAsia.Thestudyalsorelatessomeofthechallengespresentedwhen attempting theorigindeterminationof gemstones,particularly at a timewhenrubies and sapphires are mined from many new, remote and relatively unknowndeposits.Kashmir,acomplicatedstorybutpricelessbrandname:TheKashmirregion(Figure2)hostsoneoftheworldsmostfamoussapphiredepositslocatednearSumjamvillageinJammuandKashmir;aprovincecontrolledby India.Thisdeposit,discoveredat theendofthe19thcentury,producedsapphiresthatbecamefamousfortheirmuchlovedcolorandsleepyappearance.However,theremotenessandromanceofthe locationasrelatedbytheadvancingarmyofrichBritishtouriststothisPrincelyStateofKashmirandJammuwhenIndiawasregardedastheJewelintheCrownoftheBritishEmpire,addedtothestoneslore.Today theoriginKashmir,asassociatedwithbluesapphires, isastrongselling tool:Kashmirsapphiresareviewedasbeingextremelyraregemsthatevoketheromanceand the glory of a lost empire to the extent that theirmarket value is higherwhencomparedwithstonesofasimilarappearancebutcomingfromotherorigins.Asmarketvaluecanbeverydifferentforstonesofsimilarasimilarappearancebutfromdifferentorigins,gemologicallaboratoriesarecommonlyaskedtostatetheiropiniononastonescountry of origin; this being of particular importance for stones with a potentialKashmirorigin.In 2006 one of the authors (VP) visited theNamakMandi gemmarket in Peshawarwhere the stones reported from Batakundi or Nangimali areas located in PakistancontrolledKashmirarecommonlydescribedasKashmirrubiesorsapphiresbasedontheir color.Nevertheless these stonesarequitedifferent from the famous KashmirsapphiresminedintheIndiancontrolledJammuandKashmirregion.Originally thedescription Kashmirwasusedonly to refer to theKashmirValley,anarealocatedinthecurrentJammuandKashmirprovince.However,astheMaharajaofKashmirextendedhisruleovermanyotherregionsoutsideoftheKashmirValley,theentire region under the rule of the Prince of Kashmir became known as Kashmir.Subsequently thebordersof the regionwere furtherconfusedby thePakistan India

Page2

and China territorial conflict (Figure 2). Thus Kashmir refers to a disputed regioncomposedofmanydifferentvalleys, including theKashmirValleyand theseuncertainpoliticalborderscomplicatetheplacenamingofrubiesandsapphiresfromarea.

Figure 2: Map of the former Kashmir Province showing the complexity of the local situation regarding Country of OriginDeterminationandthelocationofitsrubyandsapphiredeposits.TheformerKashmirprovinceiscurrentlyadministratedbyIndia,ChinaandPakistanbutthebordersarethesubjectofaterritorialdisputebetweenthemsincethepartitionofIndiaandPakistanin1947.

Page3

SapphiresreportedlyfromtheBatakundi/BasilareainPakistanControlledKashmir:Batakundiwasbrieflydescribedasacorundum localitybyGarnier(Garnier,2003)andagainbyQuinn(Quinn,2004). InmidJune2006,oneoftheauthors(V.P.)wasvisitingtheNamakMandigemmarket1inPeshawarPakistantoprepareforvariousexpeditionsto ruby, emerald and spinelmines in the region. While there he examined severalparcelsofrubies,purpleandbluesapphiresfromthedifferentminingareas inCentralAsia;Themainmaterial inthemarketatthattimewerestatedtobefromJagdalek inAfghanistan(Bowersox,2000,Pardieu,2006)aminingareaknownforseveralcenturiesandMurgab in Tajikistan (Smith, 1998,Hughes, 2006, Pardieu, 2006, Pardieu, 2007)whichafterashortactivityinthe1990sstartedtoproduceagainattheendof2005.VPwassurprisedthatnostonesfromtheHunza2rubyandspineldepositseemedtobeavailable(Okrusch,etal.,1976,Gbelin,1982,Piat,1974).However,hedidobserveafew parcels of dark red, purplishor bright red rubies all described as coming fromKashmir. Local traders stated that thebright red stoneswere fromKelNangimali,(Kane,1997,Pecher,etal.,2002,Garnier,etal.,2004,Pardieu,2006)aremoteminingareadiscovered in1979and located,on thePakistan side,a fewkilometers from the1972 cease fire line separatingPakistan and India controlledKashmir. Thedark red,purple,pinkandbluestoneswerestated tobeassociatedwith theBatakundideposit(Clutterbuck,2009). Itappeared that thereare in fact2deposits;TheBatakundi rubydeposit producing dark red rubies and the Batakundi Basil producing purplish pinkstones. As VP was planning to visit the Batakundi and the Nangimali areas in thefollowingweeks, itwasdecidednot tobuy these (expensive) samplesbut as severalstones displayed a strong and very unusual red color zoning he decided tophotographicallyrecordsomeofthem(Figure3).

Figure3:ThreepurplesapphiresasseeninPeshawargemmarketinJune2006,thestonesontheleftgottheauthorattentiondue

toitsunusualstronghexagonalredcolorbanding.Photos:V.Pardieu/AIGSICAGubelin,June2006

1TheNamakMandigemmarketisCentralAsiasmaingemstonetradingcentre.2TheHunzadepositisinthenorthofPakistanandwasdiscoveredin1970sduringtheroadworksfortheKarakoramhighway

Page4

In August 2006 VPs expedition to the ruby and sapphire mines in Nangimali andBatakunditurnedouttobeverydifficult,firstlyastheareawasstillrecoveringfromtheterrible earthquake which affected Kashmir in Oct 2005 (numerous landslides wereblockingtheroadsintheNeelamvalleybetweenMuzafarabadandKel).ThisresultedinthelossofseveraldaysonthewaytotheNangimaliminesandtimewasthentooshorttovisittheremoteBatakundiarea.Secondly,thecollectionofsamplesfromtheseareasturned out to be very difficult as the Nangimali mine was run by the PakistanGovernmentwho had strict rules concerning theway the gemstone productionwassold.Therefore,whileVPwasable,withthesupportoftheGeologicSurveyofPakistan,tovisittheminestostudyanddocumenttherubiesinthehostrockaswellasthemineproductionatNangimali,hewasnotallowedtocollectanyrubysamplesatthemines.NeverthelesshewasabletoobtainafewbrightredNangimalirubiesandfewdarkredBatakundirubiesfromlocaltraders,buthewasnotable(afterreturningtotheNamakMandi gem market from Kashmir) to acquire any purplepinkblue samples fromBatakundi.ToVPsknowledgetheonlyforeignertohavevisitedtheBatakundidepositsofaristheBritishgemdealerGuyClutterbuckwhoconfirmed that theareawasproducingsomedarkredrubiesoffinequalitybutmostly lessthan1carat insizeandalsosomepinkpurplebluesapphires.(Clutterbuck,2009)Insummerof2008,V.P.,whilestill trying toobtainsamples from theBatakundi/Basilareas,was informed that Kashmir sapphires from this area (Figure 4) had becomemoreavailable inPeshawar.Nevertheless,thistimeagain,arrangementscouldnotbemadetoacquireanystudyspecimensastheownerswerenotwillingtocutoneortwostonesfromtheirlargeparcel.

Figure4:SapphiresreportedfromBatakundiasseeninPeshawar,Pakistanduringsummer2008.

InApril2009,afterstudyingthestonessubmittedtotheGIALaboratoryBangkok(Figure1),KenScarratt found them tobesimilar to three samples inhis referencecollectionthatwere obtained in Bangkokmarket in 2007with a reported origin of Pakistan(Figure5).

Page5

Figure5:ThreepurplesapphiresfromKenScarrattreferencecollectionreportedasfromPakistan,Photo:V.Pardieu

The three stones (Figure5)were thenadded to this study for comparisonaswellasmanyrubiesandpinksapphiresfromotherknowndepositsinCentralAsia.

GemologicaldescriptionoftheBatakundisapphirematerialGemological studies on 9 unheated faceted purple sapphires and several roughspecimens (Figure1) sent to theGIA LaboratoryBangkokby KashmirgemsCo. Ltd.wereperformedbytheauthors.Theunheatednatureofthestoneswasconfirmedbymicroscopicexaminationandspectroscopy.Thematerial used for the studywas from light pink to purplish pink and to pinkishpurple.The stoneswere transparent tomilkyand some stonesweredisplaying somestrong redcolorbanding.Generally speaking thevisualappearanceof thesepinkandpurplesapphireswasreminiscentofsomePinktopurplesapphiresfromAntsirabearea(Ambohimandroso)inMadagascarorfromGuinea.

Chemistry

The chemistry of the purple sapphires from the Batakundi areawas analyzed usingEDXRF (Energy Dispersive Xray fluorescence). The instrument employed was theQuantx by Thermo Electron, using fundamental parameters (Theoretical) and incorundumelementalstandards.OnlyTi,V,Cr,Fe,andGawereanalyzed.Thequantitativedataobtainedprovides some insighton their source typeandhelpsregardingtheorigindeterminationofthesesapphires.Theirchemistry ischaracterized

Page6

bymedium levelsof i