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Gemstones from Vietnam: An Update

2012; Gemological Institute of America; Volume: 48; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5741/gems.48.3.158

2376-4473

Le Thi-Thu Huong, Tobias Häger, Wolfgang Hofmeister, Christoph Hauzenberger, Dietmar Schwarz, Phạm Văn Long, Ursula Wehmeister, Nguyễn Ngọc Khôi, Nguy Tuyet Nhung,

Crystal Structures and Properties

V ietnam, with an area of 335,000 km 2 , occupies the eastern side of the Indochinese peninsula.Most of the country's northern and central regions are mountainous, reaching an elevation of 3,142 m in the Fan Si Pan massif, near the Chinese border.The country is endowed with some 70 gem deposits and 160 different occurrences (Nguyen et al., 1995).Present gem production includes ruby, sapphire, spinel, tourmaline, peridot, garnet, aquamarine, topaz, quartz, and green orthoclase (e.g., figure 1).With more than 3,400 km of coastline, the country is also a source of saltwater cultured pearls, and several farms have emerged in recent decades.In addition, Melo pearls are retrieved by fishermen on the southern coast and in Ha Long Bay in the north.Compared with the country's gem wealth, however, the Vietnamese mining industry remains undeveloped.Although it has been nearly 30 years since colored stones were discovered in Vietnam, mining and pearl farming activities are mostly small-and medium-scale operations run by private individuals or small companies.