Emeralds from Panjshir valley, Afghanistan

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Trip Start Jun 26, 2006 Trip End Jul 25, 2006

  Mukeni, Afghanistan
Thursday, June 22, 2006

This travelogue presents the fieldtrip Vincent Pardieu and Guillaume Soubiraa had to the Panjshir valley in Afghanistan during summer 2006. This fieldtrip was part of the wider gemological expedition supported by AIGS and Gubelin gemological laboratories with the help of ICA to Central Asia.
For an easier navigation I divided it in five parts:

1) Introduction:
A rapid presentation of Afghanistan gem wealth, and of the potential given by the free software "Google Earth" to prepare or illustrate gemological expeditions

2 ) Travel by road from Peshawar (Pakistan) to Kabul through the Kaiber pass.

3 ) Visit to the Panjshir valley emerald mines (June 2006).
In the Panjshir they could witness some underground mining activity in the Bismal and Mukeni areas. The production in Panjshir seemed to be still strong especially in small sizes emeralds but the number of miners seems to have dropped compared to the 1980's. Currently around 1000 miners are possibly working the Panjshir mountain large deposit. The prospective for the future looks good as new mines open regularly and seems to produce fine stones.

4) Visit to the Jagdalek ruby mining area

5) Special Thanks, interesting links and bibliography.

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