- Joined
- May 3, 2001
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- 7,516
One of the educational seminars that I attended yesterday was absolutely fascinating. I am going to share some of the highlights with you.
This session was presented by Richard Drucker who is the editor and publisher at GemWorld. He and his staff spend their time doing research into factors that influence the gem world, and they do an excellent job! Much of this information is the result of their research at the Tucson Gem Show in February.
All of the informational portion of this email should be concidered a quote from Mr. Drucker. I will add any editorializing.
Chinese Freshwater Pearls - There are approximately 8,000 freshwater pearl farms in China and together they produced 2,000 tons of freshwater pearls. That is a LOT ofpearls, yet the market must be absoring them as the price is steady. The government has instituted some new standards on the pearl production. All pearls not meeting those standards are being ground up rather than being allowed on the market, which will work to improve the image of the Chinese fresh water production.
There are a lot of new treatments going on out there. Treated Gems are becoming more prevelant and much cheaper. Untreated gems are becoming more expensive and harder to find. Two new things to worry about, Cobalt treated tanzanite and composite rubies. The cobalt treatment is very new, so any tanzanites that you already own are safe, but you are going to want to be very careful in new purchases of tanzanite.
The composite rubies are also pretty new, and the research on them is just beginning, but these are just one more "gift" from the unscrupulous that make purchasing gems more "adventuresome."
One good bit of news about Tanzanite. In spite of constant rumors to the contrary, Tanzanite prices are holding steady. All the predictions of massive price increases just simply have not materialized. (Personally I do not see a lot of room for upside prices, since if they get very much more expensive it wouold make more sence to buy a sapphire that is more durable. I do not ever see tanzanites becoming more expensive than a comparable looking sapphire.)
Red Spinel - Prices are up strongly, but possibly with a little upside still to come.
Yellow Danburite - These beautiful yellow stones were found in Burma and are a nice addition to the colorless Danburite originally found near Danbury, CT. I either did not know or had forgotten that this is where the original find of Danburite was made.
Major events of the gem world in the past year.
Burma embargo. The military junta in Burma uses about 400,000 troups to enforce their rule. Since some of the money from the gem trade was found to support the junta it seemed to our government to make sense to embargo gems from Burma. The embargo has had little to no affect due to the "Thailand Loophole." The goods smuggled into Thailand still needed to be cut and polished so it was determined that "this created a substantial transformation," and thus it was okay to import these goods from Thailand after they had been cut and polished.
This had virtually no affect on the ruling junta, but it had significant impact on the small mining communities and their populations. There was a new embargo that was close to being signed that would have closed the Thailand Loophole, but then the Burma Cyclone hit. So far over 34,000 deaths have been confirmed and there are still 28,000 people missing.
Condoleeza Rice stated that this is now a humanitarian issue, not a political issue. Can we impose an embargo now? Would it matter? There are NO gems coming out of Burma at this time anyway.
Last August there was a typhoon in China that decreased the salinity of the ocean in the areas where the Chinese were raising salt water oysters for pearl production. In spite of mortality rates of up to 95% there has been no affect to date on pearl pricing from the Chinese.
Madagascar Export Stoppage - A very large emerald crystal was found and legally exported to France. When he found out about it the President declared it a national treasure and demanded its return. The French declined and the President declared a stoppage to all importation. No one knows how long this will last, but it is hurting the mining community in Madagascar more than it is hurting the gem trade so far.
There was another flood in the Tanzanite mines, 8 mining pits flooded and 66 miners have been declared dead.
Any idea how many varieties there are of coated gems there are? Mystic topaz and other such gems?
Over 2,000 varieties are now on the market, largely marketed by Shop NBC, Jewelery shopping network etc. Many of them are quite attractive and affordable, and as long as they are properly represented they are a legitimate part of the market.
Also we are now seeing a globalization effect. There is booming demand in countries such as China, India and Dubai that is really using a tremendous amount of gems. There are now shortages in many of our gem materials, especially in larger and finer goods. This combined with the weakening dollar are resulting in substantially higher prices. I fear that we can expect more price increases in the near to middle term future.
That''s enough for now. I hope you enjoyed this little insite into the world of gems. Perhaps I will have enough for another letter in a day or two.
Wink
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