Opals, Australia and the Economy

It seems that no part of the world is immune from gemstone problems. Recent reports from Australia indicate that the opal business has hit tough times. An article in the New Zealand Herald reports on the town of Coober Pedy, the "opal capital" where recently an opal cutting course program was scrapped and the town, famous for its opal mine is selling synthetics to tourists. Man-made opal is common and readily available. It's supposed to be labeled as synthetic but that often doesn't happen. And, as with many other types of stones, the quality is so good that many are fooled by fakes. The kinds of fakes vary widely. There are doublets and triplets, basically thin layers of opal sandwiched with other materials, as well as pure synthetics and poor-quality opals that have received some sort of enhancement such as impregnation with resin. White opals are sometimes "smoked" to give them the look of the more valuable black opal. You can see examples over at this website.

Most of the world's real opals come from Australia but the opal has fallen out of favor as a gemstone as the cost of mining has risen. Australia like other places, has felt the hit of the global economic crisis and the country is also wrestling with severe drought and water restrictions. The mines are yielding less stones and there are less people interested in braving the heat and dust to get them.

[Photo above is an opal given to me, opals are lucky for those with October birthdays]

Auction Houses And The Future Of Jewelry Collections

This morning I finished reading "The Art of the Steal" about the Sotheby's and Christie's auction house price fixing scandal of the 1990s. The heads of both houses colluded on buyer and seller premiums and may have even discussed individual sales. Jewelry was only mentioned a couple of times in the book but both houses have large jewelry departments and hold several big sales in auction houses around the world each year. Their Geneva sales are the stuff of legend. But how do those pieces get to auction? The owners of valuable pieces are courted like lovers. Experts fly in to appraise the pieces and auction house employees often wine and dine the owners promising them big returns on their possessions. As the book shows, it's a system rife with indulgences. Although this scandal took place years ago, the auction system in general still seems to be full of excesses. The rich stay rich as the pieces gather value and little thought is given to the original provenance of the stones and metals used.

A shift seems to be occurring in collections, the average age of collectors appears to be getting older and older and younger generations seem to have, for the most part, less interest in vintage pieces. I think this can be a double-edged sword. It breaks my heart a bit when I see generic jewelry (both costume and fine jewelry) that lacks the spark of vintage or designer pieces becoming the norm with people turning to cheaply manufactured pieces rather than taking the time to learn about what they are buying. But on the other hand, when things are overvalued, corruption is more likely to occur. What this book reminded me of mostly is how long the reach of a piece of jewelry can be, from the places the materials were mined, to the places the stones were cut and the metals refined, to the design and construction of the piece and then passed from dealer to store to owner and then perhaps to another store or auction house on its way to another owner. It's the length and complexity of this chain of ownership and the many lives linked to it that often inspires me to continue to study the world of vintage jewelry. The past educates the future and what we have already taken from the ground needs to inspire us to protect the world's precious resources so that we can all continue to enjoy the beautiful pieces of jewelry for generations to come.

Yogo Sapphires, Montana's Unique Treasure

It's tempting sometimes to think of gemstones as exotic things, mined only in foreign lands but there are plenty of riches under U.S. soil. A recent piece in the Great Falls Tribune highlights the Yogo sapphires which are mined in Montana. Yogos are only found in this particular area. They are generally not large stones (under a carat in most cases) but the color is extraordinary. They come right out of the ground with a deep blue shimmer. In their rough state they remind me a bit of the cobalt blue glass that I would rarely find on New England beaches as a child.

There is only one remaining commercial Yogo mine and as the Tribune article reports, the owner, Mike Roberts, hopes to run the Vortex mine with an eye toward sustainability. Yogo sapphires are found in a vein of ore that is an orange-yellow color and stands out from the gray limestone that surrounds it. The sapphire vein was formed millions of years ago when molten rock oozed up from the earth's mantle and then crystallized along with other atoms. Other sapphires are found in Montana but the Yogos only come from this specific five mile vein. The entire surface of the vein has already been mined so the mine most go deeper to reach the remaining sapphires.

Many of the Yogo stone are not rounded and thick but are instead flat disc like crystals which are beautiful but because they are shallow lack that deep blue color and are also hard to cut and facet. Miners are hoping that there could be a market for Yogos that are mounted in their rough state like some raw diamonds. To see more Yogos and the full color range of Montana sapphires (the pinks and greens are equally lovely) check out Gem Gallery which sells Yogo sapphire jewelry in Montana.

Adornments For Justice: Wearable Art With A Purpose

The Articles of Hope, Adornments for Justice exhibit which goes on display in Manchester, England July 1st – Aug 21 brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "statement jewelry," Eleven Manchester Jeweler Network members have each come up with a piece to represent one of the articles from the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. The pieces are distinctive, personal and sometimes confrontational addressing issues including freedom of choice, hunger, industrial disease, access to medicine, the female right to vote, knife crime and China’s rule over Tibet. A photography exhibition by Jonathan Keenan paired with the exhibit shows the jewelry on the body. I don't know if the materials used were ethically sourced but the pieces are interesting and provocative. More on the Adornments for Justice website.

Gold Mining And Upheaval In Peru

Buenaventura mining announced this week that the road blockade at the Orcopampa mine in Peru ended after over ten days. The blockade began June 8, 2009 when several communities surrounding the Orcopampa mine seeking resolution on community, labor and environmental issues. According to a press release issued by the mine, the communities and the company will be negotiating the various issues separately. The labor issues between workers and the company will be handled at one table and the issues between the community and the company will be resolved with the participation of the local political authorities.

The blockade included people from neighboring towns. A labor union had previously planned a strike for June 24 but it's not clear if that will take place. This type of blockade highlights the many issues communities face with mining. Even though mining brings jobs, it also brings issues of fair treatment. This is far from the only problem that Peru's mining industry faces. Fair Jewelry recently mentioned another serious case. Community protests are often quashed in violent ways.

Peru has been going through some major upheaval lately. I can't begin to understand it all but news reports state that President Alan Garcia has been struggling to maintain public favor. His government sent police to break up blockades in the rainforests resulting in the deaths of at least 34 people. Earlier, Garcia passed laws to open up ancestral lands to mining and petroleum companies but the congress ended up repealing the laws last week. Like other countries, Peru is feeling the fallout from the economic crisis, although it seems to have only recently begun to shrink the economy there.

Reuters also reports that a financial meltdown at Doe Run Peru's La Oroya smelter has jeopardized thousands of jobs and the environmental clean up of one of the world's most polluted sites. This caused union groups to block a highway on Monday. Garcia has been urged to have to government take over the smelter but his political philosophy calls for free markets and less government involvement. The people want both jobs and environmental protection for their communities and are mining the power of protest to make their wishes known.

Not Enough Gold In The World

While we hear a lot about the dwindling oil reserves we don't hear too much about the gold reserves. They are going too. A recent Mining Weekly article reports on a study titled 'Strategies for Gold Reserves Replacement' that shows that the rate at which the industry as a whole is discovering new deposits isn't going to be equal to the demand for gold. The study looked at major gold miners producing 4500,000 oz of gold or more in 2008 and found that the cost of producing gold for these companies more than doubled over the past decade.

Companies looking for gold in new places are dealing with developing nations and finding significant resistance and political turmoil. Most producers are finding that adding to or upgrading their existing mines has added more to their coffers than finding new sources. There is also the environmental factor. Lots of areas are deciding they don't want a gold mine and all its risks in their back yard.

Meanwhile what may soon be one of Canada's biggest gold mines, in the northwestern Quebec town of Malartic is gearing up for production. The Malarctic deposit is predicted to have a whopping 6.3 million ounces of inferred gold reserves and plans call for a huge low-grade open-pit mine, a billion dollar investment that is expected to yield a billion in profits. Not everyone is thrilled with the prospect though. The extractive industries are already tearing some big holes in the Canadian North.

Right now gold is in the media more than ever as an investment. But there is only so much gold in the world. And much of it really should stay where it is, especially when we are facing issues of water shortages and creating toxic situations in areas that could be used for other purposes.

So far there is no way to create synthetic gold in large quantities. It has been done in particle accelerators or nuclear reactors using mercury but it's dangerous and cost prohibitive. Unlike diamonds which can be created in a lab and the price seems to be going down as the quality goes up, gold remains extractable only from the Earth. The question then is how much gold extraction is necessary and how much of it is advisable given the pressures facing the planet as a whole.

In Praise of Beads

I've been thinking about beads this week. I'm not a beader, I like browsing bead stores but I lack the dexterity and mind for planning. But beads have been on my mind this week, first because I've been reading a couple of my favorite archaeology magazines. At many digs it is the beads that tell the story. Digs in Alaska yield beads from China, digs of early settlements in Georgia yield beads from Holland, India, Spain and elsewhere. In every culture there are beads. Beads from wood or stone, glass beads, gemstone beads, beads that through color, shape and composition tell the story of their creation and in some cases their use.

Last week I went to an exhibit of photography shot by a friend who had traveled in Ethiopia. Her pictures featured beautiful men and women from various tribes adorned in all sorts of beads. People with little else in the world posed with ropes of beads around their necks. The beads tell their own stories, of tribal loyalties, family heritage, personal wealth and much more.

We tend not to think about beads in terms of their value. They are often cheap and ignored but they tell the history of civilization in a way that is in some ways ahead of any written story.