Mogok: The Legendary Valley Of Rubies

a participation sponsorship for this film was generously provided by mineralogical collection professionals or mcp mcp is internationally recognized as one of the world's finest laboratories for mineral specimen preparation also specializing in both gem rough and cut stones as well as performing restorations of semi-precious stone carvings check out mcp on the web at mcp hyphen italy dot com [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] gemstones since the dawn of mankind gemstones have held a place of reverence in our history amethysts aquamarines lapis lazulis opals topaz tourmalines and more for most of us when we hear talk of fine gems images of grace and elegance come to mind sophistication and beauty wealth and power it's no wonder that gemstones have historically been the adornments of kings and queens and when it comes to the royalty of gemstones there's the big four diamonds sapphires emeralds and the king of gemstones the ruby [Music] on may 12th of 2015 a 25.59 carat ruby sold at sotheby's auction for a record-breaking amount this ruby called the sunrise ruby had an opening bid of 11.8 million dollars seven minutes later the sunrise ruby was sold for a staggering 30.42 million dollars at approximately 1.2 million per carat this made the sunrise ruby the most expensive ruby in the world the sunrise ruby liked 99 of the highest quality rubies in the world came from a country in southeast asia called burma recently renamed myanmar within myanmar the finest rubies like the sunrise ruby come from a little valley in the upper regions of the country called mogok the legendary valley of rubies myanmar's location in southeast asia is bordered by bangladesh and india to the west china to the northeast laos in thailand to the east and the bay of bengal and the ataman sea to the south through this film you are about to embark on a fascinating journey deep inside the hidden valley of mogok here we will learn about the people culture and practices of this hidden world that is built upon the sole industry of recovering and trading in gemstones particularly rubies [Music] back in the 13th century famous italian explorer marco polo was the first westerner to visit burma called myan back then and describes the wealth of the country in his travelogue the travels of marco polo and in this city there is a thing so rich and rare that i must tell you about it you see there was in former days a rich and pussied king in this city and when he was about to die he commanded that by his tomb they should erect two towers one at either end one of gold and the other of silver the towers are built a fine stone and then one of them has been covered with gold a good finger and thickness so that the tower looks as if it were all of solid gold and the other is covered with silver in like manner so that it seems to be all of solid silver to this day examples of this kind of wealth are still on public display the most famous of these examples is the showed again pagoda in the country's largest city yangon the shwetagon pagoda stands at 325 feet tall and dominates the yangon skyline it is considered the most sacred buddhist pagoda in myanmar and it is said to house eight hairs from the buddha's head legends claim that this buddha dome or stupa was first constructed 2600 years ago believed to be covered with 27 metric tons of gold leaf along with thousands of diamonds and other gens it's no wonder that over 150 000 tourists visit this pagoda every year and while the gold and religious wealth on display in myanmar may draw the largest crowds it's the other natural wealth of myanmar that draws us the natural wealth of gemstones just like marco polo traveled to myanmar almost 750 years ago we too are headed into myanmar with our own team of explorers included in our team is legendary mineral collector david wilbur marco lorenzoni and dr federico pizzota from mineralogical collections professionals one of the finest mineral preparation labs in the world two local gem experts and our host international gem dealer federico barlocha from our starting point in yangon we board a short flight to the city of mandalay made famous in popular culture by richard kipling's poem mandalay written in 1890 mandalay is myanmar's second largest city and is the economic capital of upper burma as in centuries past much of myanmar's trade to china and india goes through mandalay from mandalay it's about 125 miles to the north into the mountains and then east into the famous mogok area while producing rubies for hundreds if not thousands of years the location of mogok was mostly a secret hidden from the outside world until the british occupation after the third anglo-burmese war the burmese ruby mines company was created in 1889 for the next 40 years the british were the exclusive miners in mogoc where they employed local workers forcing them to work in very inhumane conditions on the way into mogok we have to stop at a checkpoint while we need a visa to get into the country of myanmar we then need an additional visa to get into the restricted mogak area here we are on the road to mogok in tabajina here is there is the gate that divides mogoka from the world this is the restricted area for foreigners and only with a special permission we are allowed to go to see this a fabulous mind so from here we'll start our adventure in the mogok mines once we pass the checkpoint we continue up the twisty mountain road until we reach the entrance to mogog [Music] welcome to rubyland and welcome also to the valley of dreams because mogok is a dream hide in the cloud mogok from 2000 years give the best rubies on the world market but not only the best sapphires peridots moonstone and spinels so we will discover together all the secrets of this incredible valet here we can see very clearly all the minings all the house around the town are full of mines so they work close to the house they work where they live we will go together to see what happened in this incredible valley in 10th dimels's seminal book gems and minds of mogok mr thimelis identifies 11 different regions in and around mogok where gem mining took place with well over 1600 private registered mines back in 1962 you can begin to imagine the wealth of this area to better understand this our first stop is the open air gem market in mogok where barloacher will walk us through the way local business is conducted here [Music] welcome to the mogok gym market we will see how the magog people they deal all the gems ruby sapphire peridot moonstone all kind of type of gems we will make a trip together to understand all the secrets of the local trade so follow me and we will enjoy together [Music] here how the local people are trading sapphire rubies you see this is a local light very strong you can see all inside the rough so they can have a better idea of the price and the side this is looking the ruby with the sunlight to understand how is possible to cut or not here in the market there are not only gems but also they enjoy a lot you see they play snookers they play cards there are many kind of games where the myanmar people can even put a little money for a little gambling to enjoy now we will go to see something interesting the woman the woman they deal very well they are very clever they know how to get the best price and this is a local woman table this is the myanmar mogo traditional cap now they take time to relax but in the same time they are dealing gems here in mogok there are many ethnic group so we can find the myanmar chinese myanmar thai myanmar nepali or miami so very very nice to see the different type of face of group that deal in mogok they are looking all the gems on the sun because ruby on the sun they can check better there are all type of gems but mostly is normal quality because the top quality is traded in private home now we will go together to take one table and try to see what there is now here on the market here they start to show us a gems and crystal this is a high quality color ruby crystal but it's not it's broken so it's only for a rough here there is a peridot peridot from pyongyang you can see very well the peridot little cloudy here we can see this make a difference with a good gem and a high quality gem this is a good but not top quality this also another peridot [Music] nearly clean only a little smoke here a little smoke but is a high quality gem 350 these are 350 dollar per carrot so 50 carat 70 is about 25 000 a dollar this gem so they deal happily a lot of money aquamarine aquamarine from mogok aquamarine mogo have all the gems only emerald you cannot find the mogok but a topaz aquamarine tourmaline but aquamarine is difficult that is of high quality here there is a spinnel they told us a ruby that clearly is a spinel so only if you are professional you can deal in this market because there is everything sometimes there is glass sometimes they don't know the gem in this case they call ruby but is a clearly a nice crystal form of spindle a very rare stone a green sapphire green is absolutely rare and luckily is a small but is a lovely stone [Music] what is crazy there is a crystal barrier another gem colorless crystal barrel so here there is all the gemology in one market you have to know all the gems because otherwise they come every second and you must be very quick and fast you must understand all type of gems this is a yellow top topaz yellow top has big size clean clean piece good color i suspect that possible is irradiated they radiate in china but even possible that is natural because sometimes come in this color natural here i have a yellow sapphire yellow sapphire we see the quality with this light this is very interesting because when you put the light beside you see all the problem of a gem here you can see very well the problem of this yellow sapphire if we put like this the problem disappear so a good dealer immediately check the gem quickly like in this way and after he looked with the loop and he looking at many different lights so yellow sapphire little too much included oh [Music] my topaz aquaman here they claim topas this is a clearly an aquamarine so we have to pay attention because you have to know what you buy otherwise there are a lot of misunderstanding this is a lovely aquamarine crystal from modoc and with this super visit to the local main mogok market we finish our trip inside the market while visiting the gem market is exciting to truly understand the wealth of mogok we need to visit the actual source of the gemstones in our quest to gain a better understanding of the wealth of mogok we're going to explore five different mines in five of the 11 regions identified by themeless starting from the outer regions and moving our way inward our first stop will be in an area called sakanji famous for topaz and quartz here you have the secondary deposit you have a small plane in which all the crystals of topaz squares are eroded from the mountain around transported by the erosion in the plane and covered by the ground now the miners are removing the ground and the surface they are finding the residual unit alluvial in the luvial unit and they are finding rounded crystals of topaz quartz [Music] very interesting to say that in this mine for respect to the miners and to the tradition we have to take out the shoes and enter without shoes because these will give a good luck to the miner and to the local tradition now we are very well organized with light and helmet and we start to enter in this second gmail [Music] now we are entering is very low is for the myanmar local miners the sides of the hall and here here we have also the cover bamboo to protect the fall down of material here we arrive to the final point where they are working [Music] here you see they work all the position they are indicator of a small mic and quartz around here the quartz you can see here so we are very close to the pocket they are working properly is very small the place because it's a the size is for local miners for me is little difficult and this they are working quite fast because in one month they make 15 meters soft material so not too difficult to work at the moment here they are all the miners of this secondary mine there is working operation about 20 miners and you see all young people and it was really great to see the quartz and the mica that it mean that they are closer to successor this guy and they will take a share of the pocket that they will find normally miners here take one third of the pocket we are going to the best of pigmatite of toppa sports and autoclaser here in modok we will find the original pocket where the best quartz autoclave was found some years ago [Music] now is much more difficult to go inside because it's very low here we have to squeeze ourselves we are entering here in the original best pocket here was find the first pocket with also some aquamarine inside so not only toppa squats or autoclave mica but also some aquamarine from there they went here and they saw a hole here still there are quartz and they they come down here and they open a huge pocket that go inside is a room it's about a six seven meter the room we can go here here they was found in this position here all topaz and there that we can still go inside here we are inside the pocket was found the best topper squads and auto class every morgot but i see one of the best pocket in the world is huge he's like a small room was an incredible piece this mostly was a quartz and autoclave in the other side of the pocket was found mostly topaz the best topaz and here we can see very well is very low but you see our two small looms is a huge pocket for a quarter autoclave from mogo really a fantastic found here so with this mind the best mind ever in second g we finish our visit and we will pass to the new mining area production [Music] here is very interesting we can see that mogok is not only gems but is a blend of multiple ethnic groups so there are myanmar people there are people that are blended with chinese and there are people that are nepalese there are people that are indians so you can find a different kind of people different kind of face and is absolutely fantastic to see different people living together in a happy way for any person spending time in myanmar or spending time with me and mari's people one thing you notice is the yellow makeup that one sees on the faces of the people this is thinaka and it serves as a cosmetic and natural sunscreen the naca comes from the finely ground bark of the thanaka tree that grows abundantly throughout central myanmar a section of the tree is ground on a stone with a little bit of water the paste that is made by this process is then applied directly onto the face in a tradition that dates back many centuries from the far western edge of the area we are now going to move clockwise to the northern area of bernard mio the bernard myo area was producing gems well before the british occupation at a much higher elevation than mogok proper we're heading to the famous mine of puangong that has produced some of the finest peridot specimens in the world on the road to the peridot mines this place is about one hour far from mogok is a super fantastic place are the best peridot mines in the world from become the best quality of a huge size of peridot the best green and here with the lucky pagodas there is a big operation of ruby is a secondary mind [Music] [Music] [Music] and there we will go in half an hour road to the period of mine there are all the vulcans where they peridotite and they find only peridots the best peridot ever found come from mogok [Music] here finally we arrived in the peridot area in pyeongchang on my back we can see very quickly an operation mine nearly to the top to the hill and we can see very clearly the green peridotite that come out from the tunnels [Music] here we are with our miners eating after when they finish to eat they will help us to see this fantastic and unique peridot mine we are the first western people that are allowed to go downstairs and film this super special mogok peridot mine this is the typical daily life of the miners in a mine with the kitchen with the lunch eating time and now we will go outside together to go inside the mine and view everything all the secret of the peridot mining mogul here we are with the owner of the mine the peridot mine we are entering in deeply inside the mine is incredible it's very deep is also can be dangerous we have to go through these steps we are going down to the core of the mine it's very poor here we are inside the dip on the mine in the room of the dynamite here the miners are preparing dynamite with newspaper they cover with newspaper and they cut all the newspaper and for good luck they keep the best image of the newspaper the best myanmar girls so the risk of the dynamite is balanced with the beauty of the girls this is a really absolutely fantastic and funny now we will go deeper more deeper where they are working here we are with the owner of the mine going to the working position we are close very close to a pocket here they told the owner of the mine they are clearly signed that the pocket is very close about 30 feet and these are dynamite candles that to fix here and side for blasting and take out the last part where the pocket he told us that sure here will be a pocket because these are sure sign we found a pocket with the owner of the mine was a previous pocket and here in this position we can see very clearly the peridot here they found the pocket of peridot in this area we are so lucky going in this mine we saw the pocket and we saw the working operation complete here we are with the owner of the mine and with a worker and we will see the secret of this mine one day production they have a here in the safety box that now we will put on this play so now we take the key to open [Music] here we are is opening the safety magic box of the daily production now he take what they found in one day they put on the plate after to check better the material here you see so we can see very clearly that this is the daily production to see how is it harder to find a good peridot here there is a quite nothing to cut but this is the mine so even peridot is not so easy to find [Music] we can say the last year production how big was how many kg of peridot he found last year [Music] about 30 40 kg in the last year 34 kg and of this 30 40 kg what is the really gem quality and the material of low grade how is the percent wage of the the gems that you can cut top quality gems is about one person one percent even less even less yes sometimes very less very very very less okay with this good news we say hello to the miner we finish our visit he was very kind with us and we are very grateful that he gives the chance to see a fantastic period of night the best peridot in the world a mogok yes [Music] [Music] having been in mogok for a few days now the word began to spread that we were in town and we ended up receiving a few different invitations from local dealers to check out their stones because you never know what you're going to find you always accept these invitations to see what other hidden secrets of mogok may be lurking right around the corner hello mazen we are here in the house of a famous crystal dealery mogok and now we will go to see inside her secret room what she have to show us [Music] oh the paradise here here we have the famous tourmaline from momek this is a lot selection of this rare tourmaline the famous mushroom from moment is quite rare impossible to find with the foot [Music] this is the longest that they have but are all broken is quite impossible to find complete she have a huge quantity of material but like we see to find the complete please is a extremely rare from moment really nice visit to this important crystal dealer in mogok we say hello to mazzen nice visit was a very kind thank you to your hospitality [Music] so [Music] i'm [Music] here we are in a private mogok house with an important mogoka dealer and we have the chance today to see some really special gem from mogok this is a lovely 115 carat peridot really lovely this is a typical mogo cut the jam is a high-class gem and this is an extremely rare spinner from mogok good red color 12 carat is a quite rare size for mogok and here we have pink sapphire or we we can call light rubies three different color of magog stone very important to say that these gems are not heated are all natural so these make an extra value on this gem because now to find this size of not heated gems is absolutely very rare it is a way to control the the peridot to see if there are inclusion here there is a little cloud about this peridot so putting the light beside we can understand a lot of things of each gem this is absolutely clean high quality this is the way only to make the pre-checking of the quality after we will go outside to the daylight to check better the stone and to see the really beauty of these gems the spinel have a little a little brownish overtone these are three pink sapphire and these we can say is a ruby because this is a good color is not at the top but very good color but the size is quite uncommon this is very high color for peridot so i can say really six rare gems for mogok we are also lucky today because we have the chance to see the top local jewellery how they reach myanmar people they wear this is a peridot from pyongyang where we was visiting the mine and this is a top quality from myanmar gold is a myanmar gold is a 22 karat gold with diamond and peridot this peridot is about 40 carats is a high quality well cut you can see even the back this is a traditional jewelry from myanmar very very happy that the owner gave us the chance to see this beautiful things the mogo people to see the really color of spinel because it's very difficult to see the color spinner because there are so many shades they take the spinner like this and they put close to the eyes and they look inside the gem in this way you can catch the exactly color of spindle these look red but in reality it's brownish because here inside i can see clearly is the only gem on the field of gems that for see the color you do this a simple trick take the jam close to the eyes look inside and you will understand the color there is an exceptional graph of ruby you can see there's a good clarity maybe need a heater treatment but is a rare piece besides the half of ruby is quite uncommon to see so from this graph they will cut a big gem sure [Music] here we have a unique chance to see this 50 carat mogo sapphire this is a stone that in the market in the real market the world market can make some million is a is not a cheap stone i think is the best stone of the year is really an incredible stone is a old stone of local people is a private collection is not for sale it's only for sure the quality of mogok sapphire mogo sapphire for me for my personal opinion are on the top of the hill the best sapphire world market even if the cashmere sapphire paid more when a gem like this you see in front of your eyes is you have emotion is a fantastic sapphire [Music] do [Music] from the northern reaches of the mogok gem mines we'll continue our clockwise arc and visit the eastern area of pianpiet home of one of the most important mines in mogok for the best spinels in the world mansi here we are in mansen the best place in the world for spinners here they come the top color red spinners with an incredible color is a flow color unreal color unlikely our small are not so big but anywhere the color is so beautiful that all the collectors accept the small size man saying best locality for red spinel around the gem world market we are lucky because we can see a completely different style of mining they are cleaning beside the fracture of this marble so here we can see very well also in this position is a particular style of mining but very very effective unique style of mining in mogo the workers are cleaning the material that come down from the cracks and they are looking for spinels this is a typical monsan mine for producing spinels the best really the best color for red spinel in the world market very very interesting to understand how they work this is the right life so they are working deeply inside the cracks of the marble oh here we are in a local bar in a village of pimpier and they will carry to us some gemstone to see so we are ready to wait the broker that carry us the gems these are local miners i'm here with my friend david oh mostly spinners this all spinners all spinners from here we can see very well how is a hard to find a good spinner there is plenty but in good quality here you cannot see even one so it's not so difficult to find the spinners but you see gem quality is quite impossible even big even big like these big sides they can have no and you see this is a box and you cannot find even one piece gemmy [Music] [Music] this is battle nut is a typical typical food for the miner or for the local people they use a leaf they use a tobacco these are battle nuts here here they use some spicy [Music] yes another more [Music] they make a blend so they cover very well the leaf they prepare with these you can see inside there is this white calcium and this is ready all the people are eating this all the local people are eating these special food for me is difficult because after become all the mount fred but give a lot of energy is like a caffeine it make the people more strong so the miner enjoying this can work better now is like a chewing gum that give power for you thank you and he will sure so it's the way they they eat like chewing gum and they don't really eat the they can go hours like that and sometimes they split the exceed material and this is the way they pass hour and they enjoy with this a caffeine type of caffeine most of the spinels found here end up in the local markets so we're headed back to mogok to see what's new at the women's market in town and the women are the most intelligent and clever because they are very good in dealing gems this is a sapphire they know exactly how to deal how to make to get the best price for every gem now we will go in the market more deep to see more dealer this is not so bad spinner lovely sapphire and normally they put the gems on the plate is a gold plate so especially the ruby become a more red this is a typical tradition for show the ruby to the buyer they ask we are crying here lisa ruby they are all in oil because in the oil they shine more and they can cover the problem here mostly dealing indiana with ruby but you see the ruby is in a gold plate so they look more shining and more red these are also another interesting point they keep the gems in the in the money in the money get give a good luck this is the local money so they can have a better luck [Music] this is a typical situation in mogo with beautiful nice mogo cladded with the traditional cap dealing in gems this happened in mogok that in in the market you can find good stone but also glass or synthetic stone this happen is normal so some people they don't know but this is what is happening dealing gems this is a sapphire you see these have no value but they try to sell everything now is a 3 45 and the market starts to be full of people they are all arriving this is the daily appointment for gems for ruby sapphire with local girls this is a lovely ruby crystal unluckily broken here but is a quite rare piece here they are trading also sapphire with some food because they stay here all the day and so they eat they drink here we have stars stars ruby so here the customers are coming daily to trade buying and selling with these two lovely mug of women now we will try to go to see the central point for collecting spinnel in private house if they they give us the chance to have an appointment we will see the main collecting place for spinners here we are in the central house of hospital and from here you can see the market downstairs they can control the market and they have also good light so all the people from the market come here to offer spinel so they they divide inside in quality and they choose every day here we can see the octahedral form of spindle of all the different quality so from this material we can understand this is the best material now and it's very rare to find a good spinel because this is not really high quality but you see there is a lot of quantity but not really good spinel so good spinner like extremely rare this is a special visit to the traditional way to make business here in mogok here we are in the mogok house of the qatar and this is the traditional old style to cutting this is the older style of cutting is a natural corn of buffalo so here is the dope they put the jam here and they can cut like in in this way here the water come down here the diamond powder and this is how mogo cutter still today they are cutting with simple machine they can have a fantastic result for me are the best customer around the world market and now that we're back in mogok proper it's off to the famous data mine famous for rubies here we have on my back the symbol of rubies for mogok datto mine today we will go up there to try to discover all the secrets of ruby rubies come from marble and we will discover together all the secrets of ruby and how is harder to find ruby how is difficult sometimes a miner needs four or five years of work to find one good ruby so we will understand exactly that ruby is a class itself in the world of color stone [Music] on the road to datto looking for rubies is full of calcite calcite is a clear sign of rubies and here there is the best calcite in mogok so we are very close to see our data mine [Music] here we are in the miners house and we will go together what happened in each room in this house we will see the daily life of the mug of miners in the top here we are in the daily lunch and dining room the miners are waiting the food so they are smoking they are playing a cards and this is the place where the miners have relax and they eat it is very interesting this is the daily program of the mind so every day change the program so each miner can see the daily program and what they have to do there is also a fantastic local music that we are hearing in surround and now we will go to see the other daily life of the mogok miners [Music] in the free time the miners are happy to play and to gambling today they are playing cards and like we can see very well they are playing also little money for enjoy this is the way how the miners spend their time for having fun inside the mines here is the fitness room of the miners the miners are not only working inside the mine but they are taking a lot of care about their health because the more they are fit more they can even working better so here our mining is a try to make his daily work inside the local mine gym [Music] here we are with the miner that is ready to go inside the mine to put the dynamite inside the marble to make the daily work and make the blasting is also a sleeping room so but this is a walking time so he's uh really ready to go inside the mine and we will follow him quickly we are now entering in the dutto moune we will see what happen inside we are now going more deep now we have a not so easy passage here but there is a little price to pay to see the best ruby mine in the world [Music] here we arrive to the health and the mind where they are working [Music] it's incredible of friends really fantastic [Music] here we are in the deep earth of this super incredible unique mind [Music] here we are with our miner in the health of the mine he is making holes to put the dynamite inside here inside here inside here after the blasting and they come out all the small piece where outside the mines the miner will broken with the hammer this is all the process how they found ruby in the datto mine i can sail the symbol for rubies is datto here we are deep in the mine we are ready for blasting in 10 minutes we will have explosion so i give this candle of local dynamite to the miner that will carry downstairs and we will follow all the operations together [Music] oh here here we are in position hey hey hey hey you are close to the blasting [Music] incredible the air boom boom the air now we see you've come out some smoke so it moved the mountain the the we are going on the back here you can see the smoking there up there is coming out it's very clear now the miner is coming out with the calcite from the mine so they are waiting all the other miners to broken the calcite now we see what happened [Music] incredible incredible we are so lucky they found the ruby he's the owner of the miner checking so this is the rubio from mogok is a can i say even a good color a little light but today is a lucky day a ruby of this size is a quite uncommon so it means that this mine is working well and we are close to the right production [Music] how is difficult to find a ruby make a lot of work have to broken full mountain of calcite to have the chance to find the ruby so still ruby are cheap on the world market because if we compare to the cost of mining ruby cost nothing is only in the impression of western people that rubies are expensive but in reality are still cheap so this morning we like to know from our friend if in the last years was easy or difficult to find for him ruby or if it was a profitable so tanana in the last five years how was your ruby production it is not easy to get a god ruby yes in my life period of my life it's difficult very difficult to find a million million gemstones yes not sure we know we know yeah last five years i've lost a lot of money i bought a lot of money for gasoline and daily wages last six months i do not get nothing nothing nothing absolutely nothing daily i bought the money and go out like a waterfront floor ah it's incredible that this is the indicator for for my business my mind i intend to get like this fatally this pieces this is flo tattoo oh this is a fantastic ruby crystal yeah this is a rubik but it's not gem yeah not so you cannot cut gem but like crystal is a super ruby crystal yeah yes so when when you find the gems when you find gems are very small at the gem quality this is only for crystal quality with this beautiful incredible ruby crystal we say hello to tanaan and we wish the best for you or your mind because we know that you make a hard work you can visit and see me anytime thank you a lot thank you a lot here we are in a famous house of a very important woman in mogok she is the queen of the chinese myanmar group in mogok and she is performing a super ruby she have not only rubies but like we can see very well top quality sapphire top world class sapphire and with diamond that we can see clearly so she's so expert that she do by herself because she want to control all the process here we are still in the house of the queen of rubies but here we have an incredible sapphire a drop shape special sapphire no heat of over 10 karat this is a top quality so we can say not only the queen of rubies but also the queen of sapphire spinel and also other gems she collects all her life such kind of quality top quality and also top prize gems like this is a easy 300 000 400 000 depending uh from the wish of the owner fantastic drop shape sapphire from mogo no heat she have a fantastic room full of flour through it for good health good luck for the gems and the myanmar people they are very religious also people so every day there is the time to pray for the good luck and now finally we are going to visit our final mine on this trip the famous catotep mine at its peak over 4 000 miners were working in this one area [Music] [Music] we are entering now in the most difficult mines marble ruby mines in mogoka the black hole catota here are the workers and here there are black holes of 300 meters they go down in vertical and is very very difficult to go down he's like the toe but is in a vertical section all the miners are following this line because this is the vein of ruby and each mine we can see here first mine a second mine a third mine each mine go down deep now they are around 300 350 meters down in vertical very hard work super difficult now we try to see some other mine here in qatar tech to understand better the work of these people here we can understand very easy how is difficult to work here look down here the black hole they call this is the only the entrance of one of these mines and after go deep you see the wood the wood the sticky wood here this wood they use the miners to attach themselves and to go down where is the end of the mine to the health of the mine no the normal way to go down is to attach to this wood and jump to one wood to the other uh here we arrive to the first level there are so many levels here and we have to go down the other 300 meters you can feel and you can hear the sound of the water because they are pumping up water because they're all the mines of the these line of mines is a full of water they will take another month to take out the water and only then they can start to work only after one month when all the water is out here we are very close to the water and i can see from here the water is a labyrinth of horse and cavern absolutely unique in the world is absolutely fantastic on my back here very clearly we can see a crack this is a communication line between one mind to the other because i have all communication and the problem now there is a lot of water and all the mine have to work to pump out the water otherwise no one of the mines here can find ruby because there is there will be too much water downstairs here we are we can see very clearly the water they are carrying out the water all the mines they are pumping together the water and if they cannot all the mines cannot work so every mine help each other is a true labyrinth of caverns here indiana jones is nothing this is real they're really minds of indiana jones and their work is so difficult the best minds to see in mogo catote here we are at the fourth level these mines have eight ladders and we start to see the perfect marble for movie here downstairs they will find the rubies the motor for rupees here we are right on the five level there is a pool of water because the pump cannot from the bottom pump the water up so at some level they make some swimming pool to make many different pumps it's much more easy very clever system here i'm with the miners come here to see together what happened here down is incredible deep now we will go down down down down and we try to see the end but maybe not possible maybe too much water we will see what happened here we can understand exactly how they are working in this category mine in mogoka here there is the vein there we say the vein is nearly vertical 90 degrees so this vein will continue because on the bottom the vein contain and they will work for finder rubies we have other 250 meters to arrive to the bottom really unique and incredible here they are carrying out from the bottom some material okay [Music] so they are carrying out decks okay and now we go down to see what happened here there is another very interesting thing if we look on my left there has plenty of wood and this is the division against one mine to the other mine so every mine have a section of these huge crack in the marble this is the wood that go down so we are very close to the bottom they are working and they put the wood between the rocks between the marble here there is a very hard [Music] here we are at the bottom of the mine the most deep mine in the world for ruby nearly 1 000 feet incredible 350 meters here they are preparing the miners the last level and down there we can see very clearly they are still pumping the water so they are not yet at the bottom because they need another month to pick up the water before to start to look for ruby from this mine i think everybody all the people can understand why rubies are so cheap is not expensive if we consider the work if we consider the difficulties to find the rubies still rubies don't cost too much here we are near the fire is nearly nighttime we took nearly three hours to go down and come out yeah but we are completely satisfied this was the best visit ever to a ruby mine that i got in the long years of experience thank you to everybody and bye bye [Music] the piece you see before you is an extraordinary specimen that is perhaps the most beautiful and unique ruby crystal on matrix ever to come out of mogok [Music] it was uncovered nearly 30 years ago and since its discovery it has been known as the king of mogok [Music] to the people of myanmar the king of mogok has become recognized as a national symbol of the dedication and hard work of the people of mogok [Music] well when i go down when i start to go down and the catotec mine is really incredible we go down 40 meters 80 meters and then arrived in the deepest place and the 370 meters is really unbelievable there is a full of miners that work and we are in really in the movie of indiana jones looking at the gem mines in mogok was for me like a travel through the history of gemstones mining and discovery in this locality looking carefully at the landscape and at the different mines it is possible to recognize the traces of the oldest mining activity and the more recent mining activity and the very recent mining activity local people are moving working from secondary deposits more and more to primary deposits in prime because of the depletion of the secondary deposits in the primary deposits mining activity is more and more difficult and expensive nevertheless in the second in the primary deposit in which they are mostly working now they are discovering not only nice gemstones but even spacemen and these basements are absolutely unbelievable mogad crystals to a big surprise some of them are available and that made me very happy to see that because usually when you're gem mining you find these crystals and they're cut up for their cutting material but they've learned over the years the miners that if they don't have enough in cutting value and they have just a little bit then you they can be sold as a mineral specimen giving example they not only have wonderful ruby crystals sapphire crystals peridot crystals topaz crystals quartz crystals so they do have a nice range of other minerals and it makes it very exciting for the collector to have a mineral specimen coming from motoc uh because it's a prestige area they do produce the finest rubies and sapphires in the world and they produce that perhaps the best uh paradox in the world so it's world famous for the these gems and it's also important to get the minerals when they become available and i did see a few specimens that were very highly desirable as a mineral specimen so it both has gems and minerals it makes it a great area a real experience i've had looking over these specimens and going through several of the mines here mogok studying gemstones minds i had an experience that i did not expected such an experience was about caves when i was a child and i was hearing about stories of gemstones discoveries or when i was looking at movies fantasy movies in which indiana jones was walking and exploring caves finding gemstones this was impossible for me it was something really strange and when i became a geologist this was even more strange and unusual so i was thinking this is just fantasy but coming here the situation was completely different i realized that caves full of gemstones really exist here over millions of years the superficial waters corroded the marble the marble containing the ruby the rubies remain the caves and exploring rubies you can really find pots plenty of rubies this is a dream this normally fantasy but fantasy here in mogok is becoming reality to me the most interesting part about filming here in mogak was really the people and my understanding my belief when i first came here was that this was a land that was stuck 150 years in the past and the reality just by being here is it's not that way i remember i was in the market and there was a lady chopping chicken for her customers and this man came up to buy some chicken and it's just a chopping block with kind of a an ugly knife an ugly cleaver and just before she started chopping the chicken she sent a text message on her smartphone and so it's really it's a perfect blend of the modern world and the ancient world that still has all of the beauty and romance of the ancient world but it also has all the trappings of the modern world and they don't just use technology for technology's sake they use it when they need it for example all of the polishing that they're still doing in the markets it's all done by these these foot cranked wheels and it's not because they don't have electricity it's just because they don't need electricity for something like that so they only use technology when they need to and they still stick to their old ways and so it's a combination of these two worlds that i found absolutely fascinating and that brings an end to our adventure into mogok as you saw mogok isn't just a story about rubies it's a story of gemstones of all kinds it's a story of hard work dedication passion and history the warmth and kindness of the people here are every bit as valuable as the gemstones we've seen it's a place lost in time yet vibrant in memory where mountains of marble are hand cobbled into oceans of sand in search of the king of gemstones the elusive ruby [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: bluecapproductions

Views: 477,504

Keywords: Mineral, collecting, quartz, fluorite, calcite, Ruby, Gems, Gemstones, Adventure, Gem adventure, Sapphire, Rubies, Best rubies, Indiana Jones, Crystal, Mogok, Burma, Myanmar, Gem

Id: MjaRE1bE5MU

Length: 81min 9sec (4869 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2022