Rubies and spinels from the Pamirs, Tajikistan

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Trip Start Jul 01, 2006 Trip End Jul 23, 2006

  Khorog, Tajikistan
Saturday, September 22, 2007

This travelogue presents the expedition lead by gemologists Vincent Pardieu and Richard W.Hughes to the spinel and ruby mines in the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan during summer 2006. This fieldtrip was part of the expedition supported by AIGS and Gubelin gemological laboratories with the help of ICA to the Western Hymalaya range during summer 2006. Along with them were Guillaume Soubiraa, a Madagascar based French gemologist, who studied gemology at AIGS Bangkok in 2006 and Dana Schorr from Santa Barbara (California). While Richard Hughes and Dana Schorr came by plane from the US, Guillaume Soubiraa and myself arrived from Kabul in Afghanistan where on the way we visited the Panjshir valley emerald mining area.The trip was possible thanks to the help of our guide: Surat Toimastov, a famous Tajik photographer.

After one day in Dushambe we left to Khorog the capital of the Badakshan province. From Khorog we visited the historic Kul I Lal spinel mines and then left to Murgap to visit the "Snijnie" ruby mines which are located in the center of a large area rich in corundum. Then left
to the Wakhan corridor following the Afghan border up to Iskhashim to finally return to Khorog and then Dushambe. The final part of our trip was the visit to the "Gubjemast" company which is mining in both Kul I Lal and Snijnie.

You can enjoy our fieldtrip report, photos and videos at the following link:
Tajikistan: Gems from the Pamirs.

All the best,
Vincent Pardieu,
www.fieldgemology.com

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