The Five Famous Sources of Ruby

The Ruby gemstone is one of the most valuable pieces of precious stones on the planet. This stone has become a part of many couples’ love stories due to its romantic symbolism including that of well-known personalities like Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. Let’s see the places that host these beautiful gemstones that a lot has been said and written about.

MOGOK, MYANMAR – This territory which is 200km north of Mandalay, the capital of Myanmar, has earned itself the moniker ‘City of rubies’ globally due to the large quantities of the ruby precious stone found there. Mogok is home to many varieties of this gemstone which can hardly be found anywhere else and command a steep price including the scarcest and the most expensive ruby on the planet known as ‘Pigeon’s Blood’.

THAILAND – The rubies in Thailand contrast greatly from those in Myanmar as they have high levels of transparency though they have a dark red color similar to garnet stones due to the high presence of iron in them. The attributes of this attractive ruby which is found in the Chanthaburi province have led Thai rubies to be among the most fancied among gem collectors.

NIASSA, MOZAMBIQUE – 2008 witnessed the discovery of a new source of natural rubies in Niassa, a territory in the north of Mozambique. These rubies have a strong reddish color which makes them similar to the pigeon blood red ruby gemstones of Myanmar. This similarity has made Niassa rubies very valuable. A large quantity of fine quality rubies, usually known as unheated rubies, and commercial ruby gemstones, which are of lower grade and has to be treated to improve their color and purity for use in silver jewelry, have been extracted from Niassa.

WINZA, TANZANIA - This Tanzanian village is reputed for its different kinds of rubies. Winza ruby gemstones are noted for their high levels of transparency, a trait they share only with rubies from Vietnam which are no more being extracted due to the mine supplying them been exhausted. They also don’t need heat to bring out their high level transparency of their beautiful coloring which consists of pure red, red of an orange tint or other combinations of red and orange. This has made their appeal to shoot up over the years.

INDIA -Indian ruby gemstones are gotten in the South of India, precisely in Karur-Kangayam and Hole-Narsipur regions located in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka respectively. The ruby precious stones found here have many foreign bodies found in them but beads and cabochons can still be produced from them.