Gem Profile 21: Namya Ruby:  
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  Just when the U.S. government has halted America’s Ruby market from banning all imports from Burma, dealers are starting to see the best red corundum’s to come from that country in years.  These stones were coming in form a promising trickle of good s from a vast untapped area called Namya, which is not too far away from Mogok the world’s most famous ruby district.  

Although Namya has been a known ruby source since the British annexed upper Burma in 1886, it wasn’t until 2001 that large numbers of people began digging there for gems.  Why did it take so long?  There was no need to mine in Namya.  Mogok had been satisfying appetites for ruby for nearly a millennium.  And despite the emergence of other sources, Mogok remained the world’s most preferred origin for ruby, so much so that pedigreed Burma stones were entitled to hefty premiums. 

Alas, the pickings are slim at Mogok nowadays and miners have to spend fortunes digging deep holes and tunnels to find them.  According to Dr. Adolf Peretti of GemResearch SwissLab (GRS) there are only 30 active mining concessions at Mogok-half the number just a few years ago.  Thankfully, the sharp decline at Mogok was offset by the discovery of rubies in super abundance at Mong Hsu. 

No match for Mogok in the upper echelons of quality, Mong Hsu was nevertheless a mother lode- much of whose material could be transformed through heating (and sometimes glass-filling) from gravel to grandeur.  For more than a decade, Mong Hsu was a seemingly bottomless pit for bargain-prices, over-alchemized ruby.  Then, after production at Mong Hsu peaked in the late 1990’s mining began in the earnest of Namya. 

Since 2001 Namya has become the first great challenger to Mogok’s supremacy in the realms of rubies.  Mogok has never had this kind of competition before.  Granted, the newcomer has a long ways to go to tae the crown.  But according to Peretti, rubies from both places are virtually indistinguishable.  The best stones from each locality have drop-dead reds and pinks, enhanced by the shimmering of fluorescence. 

Perhaps the best news from Namya is for connoisseurs and collectors.  Already it is giving the world small but hopeful numbers of superbly crystallized rubies that don’t need trips to the oven to look their best.  So after more than a decade of selling heating-depentant Mong Hsu ruby, Namya is allowing dealers worldwide to go cold turkey heat- treating the rubies. 

The U.S Burma import ban, which became law on a year-to-year basis on September 28 2003, forces the international gem market to adopt a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with regard to rubies sold to America.  To buy Burma stones, American dealers have to overlook where they were mined.  And to sell such stones, dealers, sensitive to this legal dilemma, either have to lie or say nothing.  Naturally, most don’t want to do either. 

Why should they when dealers from Europe and Japan, who are allowed to traffic in Buram gems, are free to ask where the new material comes from and willing to pay as much for Namya as for Mogok goods.  According to Belmont, two top color 5 carat unheated stones, one from Vietnam and the other from Mogok or Namya in Burma, are worth $20,000 and $100,000 per carat respectively.  No wonder that fine 10 carat-plus unheated Burma rubies now command prices of $2 to $3 million.

            The new law says supporters, affirms America’s commitment to democracy in Burma.  All well and good, critics counter, but it also hurts the livelihood of the oppressed people who produce the products for which Burma is known.  Since America is the number one market for fine rubies, the law could have a harsh impact on Burmese gem miners, dealers, and cutter.  For sure, it will have a harsh impact on American ruby importers.

Before the ban the American dealer could afford to compete for the fine Namya or Mogok stones in Bangkok because origin would be a pivotal point in their resale.  Now with Burma goods taboo, the American dealers can no longer buy and sell on the basis of locality and must drop out of the bidding for top gems, unless of course he is willing to hoard them until the ban is lifted.  But given the tenacity of Burma’s ruling junta, in power since 1962, the ban is likely to be renewed for years to come.

That leaves America’s dealers, jewelers, and consumers locked out of what one New York specialist in fine gems calls “the ruby masterpiece market” once prized stones imported before the ban are sold.  Worse, he says “America may have to give up entirely on just about all ruby if U.S customs gets serous about enforcing the ban.  What country other than Burma can satisfy demand for fine unheated or even heated ruby?

Modern Jeweler, February 2004 
By David Federman
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