ETHICAL GEM MINING – Yes, it’s possible.

December 17th, 2006 by Aussie Sapphire

There is plenty in the press at the moment about ”Blood Diamonds”.  Much less about the unethical and environmentally destructive mining methods used to produce many of the worlds fine coloured gemstones.  This is a pity because these practices are prevalent today, not in the past but right now!  However, we have proven gem miners can co-exist with landholders and produce positives for the land and its workers. 

Aussie Sapphire and Wilson Gems are the only major Sapphire Miners that remain in consistent, full time production on the highly productive New England Sapphire Fields in NSW Australia.  We work closely together and share the passion needed to succeed in todays competitive market.  While all successful businesses must focus on profit and growth, we have seen all too well the results of greed in the past.  I have worked directly for such operators – keen to dig holes but never the time or money to fill them back up.  Inevitably, their attitude to staff and landholders is as disappointing as the lack of concern for the environment.

 

Images above show that our gemstone mining causes little disturbance to the land with ground cover maintained (left) and cattle grazing during mining (centre).  The third photo (right) show land being plowed adjacent to the cut as part of the restoration process.

While some may claim that mining in this way is too expensive compared with low-cost competitors, we have proven that we can run a profitable operation.   We have strengthened our full time and part time workforce despite the last 5 years of generally depressed markets for sapphire.  At the same time, we have maintained our strict restoration process by returning mined land back into full agricultural production as we progress.  The tangible proof of this being the plough and seeder working adjacent to the open cut and crops growing only metres ahead. 

How can this be achieved?

1. Planning is critical, we work directly within the cropping/farming plan.
2. Keep up with the restoration.  The temptation is always present to just leave that till later but if you always fix as you go, it never becomes too big a job.
3. Pride in your work – both from management and workers.  A good example of this must be set by management but we depend on quality work from staff that are happy in their job and appreciate the satisfaction of a job well done.
4. Sound practices are essential to achieve success all round.  A profitable business structure, our efforts to find new markets and value-add our product where possible has made us strong in a time of market weakness.  We anticipate that this will stand our business in good stead as markets improve.

Some basic priciples we adopt:

We only ever have one hole open at the cut where possible.  In the past many operators left long open cuts but final finishing in these cases can take thousands of metres of fill to restore.  Our way normally only requires about 5 truckloads of backfill to completely finish any one cut.

All soil is removed and placed back in the same general order and levels it was before mining.  In other words, the waste from the plant (washed rock/muddy gravel) is placed back in the very bottom, the subsoil layer is then replaced and leveled.  At this point, the area is rolled with the excavator tracks to ensure an even and level surface which is compacted enough to remove any air pockets.  Finally, the topsoil from the next small hole is placed on to this restored pad ready for dozing level and planting down to crop or pasture.

This single hole method also increases the whole safety of the open cut.  Rather than working an excavator with tracks against a sheer open cut, we can always leave one track against solid ground.  This also applies to unloading of tipping trucks at the cut where one wheel is always against solid ground.  With the risk of wall collapse at almost zero and a relatively shallow depth of work, this method of mining is very safe for all concerned.  

The other advantage of one small hole is in case of flooding.  Only small quantities of water ever need to be removed from a small cut while long open cuts can contain many thousands of litres of often dirty water.  This can pose both a pollution problem and a safety hazard.  The health of the land and water is extremely important – the nearby creek is both habitat for wildlife and watersource for domestic and livestock use.

The photo on the left shows a section of Reddestone Creek with deeper waterholes where fish and water rats make their home along with shallow sections suitable for a wide variety of waterbirds, some of which may be seen in the centre photo.  The land is also a productive farm with both cropping and beef cattle enterprises as seen in the last photo. 

While our message is a positive one and one we are proud of, it hasnt been easy.  We pay a fair wage to all that work for us throughout the whole process.  This does hurt our short term profit as it is possible to get the work done cheaper – but we strongly believe in rewarding quality work.  Unfortunately, most of the trade is strongly dollar driven – large sectors of the industry ruthlessley drive the price down regardless of quality or a fair living wage for the workers.  We do see change however and with the support of the forward thinking in the market place, we have grown our business and we only see positives ahead.

In conclusion, I would like to restate that mining for sapphires and other gems can be done in a way that looks after those involved in the industry and the land which provides these riches.  Lets keep encouraging those miners and countries that can’t see this to change.  Remember that the end buyer does have power in this process – demand for ethical gems will drive change for the better.

IT AINT THAT HARD! 

More on Garnet

January 7th, 2007 by Aussie Sapphire

The birthstone for January is generally acknowledged to be Garnet.  Unlike some other months, there are few alternative stones for January although some sources list emerald as the “mystical stone” for January.  However, garnet is a very versatile gemstone in its own right with a beautiful range of colours available.

Since we have already covered Garnet in our usual “Gem of the Month” format, we will explore some of the varieties of garnet in this month’s article.  An example of one of the more unusual varieties is tsavorite seen in the photo at left from Palagems in their Tsavorite Buying Guide.

Garnet is a group of minerals with similar chemical composition, physical properties and crystal structure.  There are six species of garnets recognised although many gems lie on a substitution scale between species making a positive identification somewhat challenging in many cases.  See the Garnet Factsheet on Mineral Miners for more discussion on garnet species and how to distinguish them.

• ALMANDINE:  Colour is typically a deep, rich red – less valuable specimens have more brown.  Sources:  Brazil, India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, U.S. in Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, Arkansas and Kentucky.
• PYROPE:  Colour is usually deep, rich red or variations on this.  Sources:  Australia, Czechoslovakia, South Africa – Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
• SPESSARTITE:   Colour is ideally bright orange but ranges from reddish orange, red, reddish brown, to brown.  Sources:  Brazil, Namibia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, US.
• ANDRADITE:  Colour usually ranges from green, yellowish green to greenish brown and may occur in black.  This species includes the highly sought after demantoid garnets.
• GROSSULAR:  This species ranges widely in colour from colourless to black with almost all colours in between (red, green, pink, yellow, etc).  This species includes the rare and valuable tsavorite garnets.
• UVAROVITE:   This quite rare species of garnet is dark green and often found as fine crystal clusters (sometimes referred to as drusy because of the small crystal formations).

For more reading on this, I recommend the Garnet page on the Gemology Project – this is a new resource associated with the Gemology Online forum so it is highly recommended for anyone interested in gems.

Due to the complexity of the garnet group, there are quite a number of individually named gem varieties.  Here are just a few:

• HESSONITE:  this garnet falls into the grossular species and occurs in yellow, orange and brownish colours.
• RHODOLITE:  This rose-red to purple garnet is part-way between Almandine and Pyrope – closer to pyrope than the Mozambique type garnet which is also a pyrope-almandine garnet of a deep red shade.
• TSAVORITE:  Medium, intense green to slightly yellowish green.  This rare and valuable gem is found in Kenya around the Tsavo National Park area for which it is named.
• DEMANTOID:  Another highly sought after gem – the best examples will show intense green colour and “horsetail” inclusions.

The commonly found red garnet (likely of pyrope-almandine type) are very affordable and used in jewellery all around the world.  A range of these in calbrated sizes are available in our online shop for those looking to use them in jewellery at the more budget end of the scale.  A little higher up the scale is rhodolite and spessartite.  Spessartite in particular is becoming very popular and with a current shortage of rough, they are certainly not a cheap option.  For those who want only the best, we suggest you consider the more rare varieties of garnet such as demantoid, tsavorite or colour change garnets (including the new blue varieties from Madagascar).

 A classic example of a demantoid garnet from the Ural Mountains in Russia – clean except for the diagnostic “horsetail inclusions” and available from Mineral Miners.

The picture at right shows some spessartite cabochon cut from rough we sourced from Nigeria.  We have spessartite rough available online now and we hope to list some of our faceted and cabbed gems as soon as possible.  These gems can show some real fire and make fantastic pieces of jewellery.

I hope this article has inspired you to consider garnet for your next gemstone purchase – there is certainly something for everyone in this fantastic range of gems.

Adoption news: Angelina is a Madonna but not vice versa?

Morning Briefing:

Jolie weighs in on Madonna: According to the Daily Mail, Angelina Jolie wasn’t impressed with how Madonna decided to go about adopting her son, David, from Malawi. “Madonna knew the situation in Malawi,” said Jolie. “It’s a country where there is no real legal framework for adoption. Personally, I prefer to stay on the right side of the law. I would never take a child away from a place where adoption is illegal.”

Heightening her moral status, perhaps, Jolie actually took the form of Madonna’s namesake — at least in a painting currently showing at the Miami Art Fair, where Jolie appears as the Virgin Mary, holding baby Shiloh in her arms with Maddox and Zahara at her side. (Daily Mail, Kate Kretz)

From Salon.com. Read more here.

p.s. I still like MY idea of Madonna being so concerned for the child’s welfare that she will give the baby’s father a micro-loan (or, a macro-loan, hey, she’s rich!) so he can raise his own child in his own country, as he has said many times he desires to do. Why separate parent and child if you don’t have to? Just a thought.

posted by Green Fertility Marie

Folk Fertility Fun: Pistachios

Pure fun fertility stuff: I keep hearing anecdotes about pistachios being good for fertility, if both partners eat them. (And not the disgusting red-dyed ones, please.) In fact, last time I accidentally became pregnant, MAN FERTILITY and I had just come off a pistachio binge.

Pistachios are actually really nutritious: 2 oz has more potassium than a banana, also has significant amounts of vitamin B6, thiamine, magnesium, phosphorous, and copper–all fertility boosters.

Also, check this out from VegParadise: Pistachios trees are dioecious in nature, meaning that the sex of some trees is male and some female, and that both are needed for complete pollination.

And: The Queen of Sheba was convinced that pistachios were a powerful aphrodisiac and ordered the pistachio harvest of the best trees grown in Assyria to be used for her and her royal guests only.

Look for a deep, green color for the freshest nuts. I like the soaked, sprouted, gently dehydrated (more nutritious, easier to digest) organic ones (pictured above) from Jigsaw Health.

Go nuts!

posted by Green Fertility Marie

Shrooms Help Gluten digestion?

The following article is interesting, because the maitake (a.k.a. Hen of the Woods) mushroom is prized in Asian medicine as an adaptogen (like ginseng, something that helps your body cope with stress) and I see people like Dr. Andrew Weil recommending it to do things like ward off colds.

Many mushrooms contain something called beta glucans, which are good for the immune system, and maitake is supposed to have one of the highest usable levels of beta glucans. And, like the ever healthful p’yogo mushroom prized by Korean (a.k.a. shitake), it taste deeeelicious.

And now researchers have found it might help GLUTEN digestion? How’s that for anti-inflammatory??? I’m finding more and more that the my various (mostly female) relatives always exhorting: eat this, it’s good for you (kimchi, mushrooms, bell flower roots, goji berries)! May be smarter than I gave them credit for–now I’m deeply humbled and always learning.

Proteases of Maitake (Grifola frondosa) Responsible for Breakdown of
Wheat Flour Dough and Their Reaction with Gluten Proteins

Makoto ABE1) and Masaharu SEGUCHI2)

1) Department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Intercultural Studies,
Gakushuin Women’s College
2) Laboratory of Food Technology, Faculty of Home Economics, Kobe
Women’s University

(Received April 7, 2003)
(Accepted May 15, 2003)

Two proteases capable of decreasing dough strength when added to
wheat flour were purified from Maitake and these were both thought
to be peptidyl-Lys metalloendopeptidase. The major purified protease
SP-3-A hydrolyzed high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits preferably
to the other glutenin subunits. SP-3-A cleaved peptide bonds
adjacent to the N-terminal of lysine in the high-molecular-weight
glutenin subunit.

posted by Green Fertility Marie @ 5:40 AM

Weight Loss and Measuring Up (Or Down)

posted on January 9, 2007 by Anne

Losing weight is one of those perennial goals that people start in earnest this time of year. That includes runners vowing to shave their race times by paring down a few (or more) pounds. And thatís why many of us in the past week have headed to a calorie-counter or weight-loss site to first determine how much we can eat and still lose weight.

The Body Mass Index is a popular tool to determine an ideal weight. It’s the formula behind those online calculators asking current height and weight before graphically letting you know where you stand. The results can be surprising, and deceptive. Thin people are not necessarily healthier than heavier ones if they have a poor diet damaging their organs. But the BMI makes no distinction because it doesnít take into account what you eat or how often you work out. It has no idea of body fat versus muscle mass either. Numerically, agencies like the Centers for Disease Control consider anyone with a BMI of 25 or higher to be “overweight” and anyone under 18.5 to be too thin. Almost every U.S. professional football player falls way out of normal range on those charts. So did Michael Jordan when he played for the NBA and Arnold Schwarzenegger during his Mr. Olympia days.

Last year economist J. Eric Oliver published a book claiming Americans’ obesity epidemic is overstated by some influential doctors and members of government and fueled by social prejudice promoted by the billion-dollar drug and diet industries. BMI is widely used to track obesity statistics because of its neutrality, he explained, but its origins are rooted in astronomy. A Belgian named Adolphe Quetelet in the 1800s developed a mathematics law to predict the likelihood of a phenomenon based on repeated observations. To test his theory, he collected height and weight data on French and Scottish troops and found a range of weights to statistically constitute a normal distribution by heights. We know this better as a bell curve.

A century later, the insurance industry, in search of a mechanism to determine mortality rates, built upon those ancient charts by using similar weight ranges to help predict the likelihood of early death. The CDC eventually adopted the formula to determine American obesity levels.

There is no doubt that excess weight for runners—or anyone—has its drawbacks, which is why so many of us seek to be slimmer. The key is to lose the extra pounds slowly through proper portions and healthful foods while maintaining or eventually increasing calories expended through exercise. A good starting point in developing a sound strategy are 10 Tips from The President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Yes, these suggestions are designed for kids, but aren’t we all still children at heart?

Technorati Tags: Running Tips, health, Nutrition