visiting gem mines in Sri lanka

VISITING GEM MINES IN SRI LANKA (date advertised-20/12/2023)
Our team "Sapphire expedition" with the intention of visiting the gem mines in Ratnapura, started our days journey from the Cinnamon grand hotel at 5 am today,it was about two hours drive to the district of Ratnapura reached around 8 am, because of the rainy weather most of the mines are temporally closed but we managed to visit couple of mines which are currently operative. The first one comes under the Sabaragamuwa district in the town of Pelmadulla in Kuruwita village, the mine was 18 ft deep (12'x8') 8 rods to the Illam (the potential earth with rough stones), when they reach the Illam they unearth it to the surface put it in a special basin hose it with a barrage of water which goes down to three separate basins, the top one retains the potential rough gems (as it weighs more than the normal stones), there are immature stones "Gevuda" found among the gem stones as well, these are immature stones which can be heat treated for color inducement (but carries less value than the natural Blue sapphires), the Gevuda stones are categorized into three which are Silky, Milky & Diesel, the Silky is the most valuable of the lot. Most of the mining is carried out during morning hours, the mine is dug deep & goes L shape after a certain point, a well pulley like rope is used to send material up & down the mine & an unsophisticated communication system of a long thin pipe connecting the bottom of the mine to the surface is used for communication. The work goes on for months until valuable gems are found, during rainy weather when the mine pits gets filled with water pumps are used to pump the water out. The second mine we visited was in Sabaragamuwa district, town of Pelmadulla, Nilagama village which was a larger scale one 57 ft deep twin holes & L shaped at the bottom.The Ratnapura town is divided to eleven Gem mining areas including two in Ehaliyagoda which has a district supervisor of the National Gem & Jewelry Authority officer in charge, who overseas for any illegal mining in the area. Sapphire expedition (phase two done on 22.04.2025)