Emerald Feature - Zambia
A journey through Africa.
On Sunday the 7th of November 2010 we took an evening flight
from London to Johannesburg. I was travelling with my eldest son Matt who had
volunteered to be the cameraman on our Emerald sourcing trip to Zambia. After
12 hours we touched down in South Africa and with just enough time to grab a
coffee, we jumped on a very small plane which took us two hours back in the
direction we had already travelled, landing at a small airport in the North of
Zambia known as Ndola.
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Miner with rough Emerald. |
At the airport we were met by Ian Harebottle. Ian is the CEO
of a company called Gemfields, the largest Emerald mining company in Zambia.
Ian is a real guru on gemstones and before joining Gemfields he was the CEO of
Tanzanite One (the largest mining company for Tanzanite). Ian informed us that
the trip to the mine would take around two and half hours and he started to
give us some background to the country.
We were travelling through the north of the country in an
area know as The Copperbelt. The area has mainly copper mines which contribute
to around 70% of the nation’s exports.
Ian explained how the 11 million population was spread across 72 different
tribes, but unlike other tribal countries I have visited in the past there was
little to no friction between these different ways of life. Ian put this down
to the fact that in the 1970s president Kenneth Kaunda, insisted the country
should be harmonised with the national language becoming English. This made
sense as until 1964 Zambia had been a British colony which was previously known
as Northern Rhodesia.
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Emerald Miners |
Whilst we are talking about size, geographically speaking
Zambia roughly covers the same area as the UK, France and Ireland combined. The
country is land locked and has one of the most interesting borders I have ever
seen. To the north it neighbours The Democratic Republic of Congo, then moving
clockwise it borders Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibiaand finally Angola.
However, unlike many of it neighbours who have a treasure
chest of different gemstones lying below their soil, Zambia only has Emeralds(some of the best on the planet as I discover later) and a small quantity of
Amethyst and Tourmaline deposits.
As we drove along I commented to Ian how unusually green the
landscape appeared for Africa. He explained that the country is situated just
below the equator and above the latitude of Capricorn and that it is a very
tropical country with not just an abundance of wildlife, but also a diverse
range of both vegetation and fruit. The amazing thing was that we had arrived
just before the rainy season had started (it normally runs from November to
March) and the scenery that we were witnessing would only get better and
better.
We travelled along a well-tarmaced road until we hit the
town of Kitwe. From here the road turned into a very wide (almost motorway
width) dirt track, with vehicles coming from all directions, bouncing up and
down on the pot holes like peas on a trampoline! After another 10 or 15km, we
arrived at a remote village called Kalulushi. Ian told us to prepare for an
even longer, even bumpier journey from here to the Kagem Emerald mines.
What an understatement! For 35km we travelled away from Kalulushi,
and the more we drove, the more the small houses along the side of the road
changed from small unpainted breezed blocked abodes to mud huts with thatched
roofs, with the whole hut being about half the size of an average sized UK
living room.
As we travelled, I started to get a sore backside from
constantly bouncing up and down in the back seat! However, as our vehicle
collapsed down another pot hole and then rose above another boulder, I started
to forget about the image I had conjured up after reading the travel guide.
Every corner we turned people were coming out of their small dwellings and,
almost without exception, they had a smile and a waving hand.Eventually we
arrived at a barrier which announced we had arrived at the mining area. To my amazement
we were stopped by a very smart security guard who spoke impeccable English and
who was carrying an AK47 rifle. After getting through the gate I asked Ian why
the guard was carrying such a powerful weapon. In all my time visiting mines
around the world I had not seen one secured by an armed gunman. Having said
that, I have been held at gun point on two occasions - both by young men - once
trying to take the cash that we were carrying to buy gems and another one who
claimed to be a policeman who tried to take our cameras, claiming we could not
film in his valley, but I digress. Ian informed me that the government owned
25% of the Gemfields Emerald mine and they were so precious about their
Emeralds that they did not want to see a single piece leaving the complex
without it going through the proper routes. For this reason they had assigned
several armed guards to the mine.
After another kilometre or so we came to a steel gate. This
time, the security was even tighter, with more forms to fill in and barbed wire
fences stretching both left and right as far the eye could see. After four
security checks and what seemed like endless form filling and bag checks we
finally arrived at the site.
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Guarded steel box containing the days find. |
After unpacking our gear and testing whether the camera equipment had survived the
long and bumpy journey, we went to the miner’s canteen for some dinner. The
first thing that struck me was how happy everybody seemed.
They had a pool table, and those that still had energy from
the full day of mining were playing a game of badminton. I spoke to one of the
team and he said, “Of course we are happy, we have the best job in the world.
We wake up every day with the hope of finding a beautiful Emerald in the ground
and when the day is finished, we are well fed and have a roof over head. What
more could a man want than dreams and comfort?”
After dinner we went to bed, covered with mosquito cream and
with our mosquito nets firmly tucked in around our beds. We awoke at around 5am
to the sound of heavy machinery on its way to the mining area. Our first
meeting of the morning was with Ian and Gemfields head geologist Rob, who gave
us an in-depth guide to the geographical area and how Emeralds were formed.
Even though Zambia is becoming world famous for its
incredibly beautiful Emeralds, the vast majority of them are only unearthed in
a small area no more than a couple of kilometres long, know as the Fwaya Fwaya
Emerald belt. Translated from the local language into English, this means “Look
Look”. I can only assume this was the phrase used by the first miner in the
area to unearth an Emerald. You see, with this gemstone its colour is not
enhanced by any treatments whatsoever, and the first miner must have almost
fainted at the natural beauty he had unknowingly unearthed.
Rob began to explain how Emeralds in the area were uniquely
formed. One and a half billion years ago, a layer of earth was formed which
today is known as the TMS (Talc Magmatic Schist). This layer was rich in
chromium, which is the element that often turns Emerald green. Over the next billion
years this TMS became covered by more layers of new rock formation. Then, 500
million years ago, molten magma started to seep through cracks and crevices in
the various layers of rocks, and as the magma passed through the TMS layer it
intermingled with some of its chemical elements. The magma carried with it
Feldspar, Tourmaline, Quartz but, most important of all, it was rich in
Beryllium. Now Beryllium is the building block for all gemstones in the Berylfamily, including Aquamarine, Morganite and most importantly of all, the King
of Beryl - the Emerald. As the molten cooled at this junction where the
pegmatite crosses the TMS layer, there became an environment where Emeralds had
the potential to grow.
Rob and his team’s job is to track these junctions and to
start exploratory mining. They call these small areas, where the potential of
discovering Emerald is at its highest, the reaction zones. Rob had previously
worked with Ian at Tanzanite One and explained to me the differences between
the two environments in which these two world renowned gemstones had grown. In
Tanzania, gems were formed in spacious holes created when two continental
plates collided with each other, with one rolling over the other. Then, after
being bent under immense pressure, they created these voids. It was the coming
together of these two different plates, each with their own cocktail of
chemical elements that leads experts to believe that Tanzanite will not be
found in any other area. Rob then explained that the environment needed to grow
an Emerald could not be more different than that required for Tanzanite.
During their crystallisation, the Emeralds went through
periods of immense pressure. In fact without this incredible pressure, which
was 100 times greater than the pressure in a car tyre, Emeralds could not form.
But pressure is not the whole story. The reason why Emeralds are one of the
rarest gemstones on the planet is that four things all had to happen at the
same time - 500 million years ago - in order for beautiful Emerald crystals to
grow. Not only did the pressure have to be precise, but the temperature had to
remain at 700 to 900 degrees for the required period of time and even then the
crystal would only grow if the magna cooled at exactly the right speed. In the vast
majority of the region it cooled too quickly and no crystallisation took place.
Next, the cocktail of elements had to be perfectly blended. The right amount of
Beryllium mixed with the Chromium gained from the TMS layer along with other
elements all had to be present in the correct proportions, all forced into the
crack or crevice in the rock and all exposed to the aforementioned conditions.
As we left our meeting room I was starting to realise why
this gemstone is so rare. I also left with an increased appreciation of how the
inclusions within every Emerald simply tell a unique story of how each piece
was individually formed in its very hostile and very lengthy incubation
period.As we drove down into the mine I was amazed by its vastness. This was
not like any other coloured gemstone mine I had ever seen before. Its scale
looked more like a Diamond mine or a precious metal mine. In terms of length,
the mine was approaching 1km but as we drove down into the mine it was not the
length that surprised me but the depth. As we reached 100 metres below ground
level Rob informed me that the MTS (Magnesite-Talc Schist) layer of the rock
was not level with the surface but dipped at quite a steep angle. This meant
that as the years have rolled by at the mine, they have had to chase the
reaction zone further and further below ground level.
As we left our vehicle and stepped out into the mine I was
met by the company’s main gemmologist, whose nickname was CV. I have never seen
any adult in my whole life look so excited. He told me that the team chiselling
away at the rock face that morning had had the best find of Emeralds since
June. He was simply beside himself. He quickly took us to where the miners were
working and at the feet of another armed security guard was a tin box the size
of a small microwave oven secured by multiple padlocks. As he instructed the
guards to open it he was almost trembling with excitement. As the lid finally
came open after the guard fumbled about with 10 different keys, I fell
speechless.
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Steve at the Emerald mine. |
After the excitement had died down, CV said to me, “I have
something else to show you”. He walked me over to the rock face that formed the
side wall of the mine and showed me an Emerald just above head height that was
still embedded in the host rock.
I couldn’t believe my
luck. This Emerald was about an inch in diameter. After about five minutes of
me taking dozens of photos and waxing lyrical to my son on film about how good
luck can strike twice in a day, CV said, “We are only pulling your leg, we did
not find this one this morning, but ten days ago. But as we knew you were
visiting we wanted to leave it in its complete natural position, as we wanted
to show it to you, little did we know we would also find Emeralds on the day
you arrived!”.
The gem was amazing. In the end, after it is carefully
extracted with the skill of a top archaeologist, it might not weigh more than
half a carat. That said, it was truly amazing. Eventually Rob had to drag me
out of the mine. I just didn’t want to leave - I was having an experience that
dreams are made of. Rob promised me that he had a real treat in store for me.
As we drove out of the pit he asked if I was impressed. “Impressed! I think I
have just died and gone to heaven”, I said. In my mind, Emeralds at this point
had just been elevated from a gorgeous gemstone to possibly my favourite! I
wish I could change my loyalty to my football team that easily!
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Entrance to the underground mine. |
“So what’s your solution?” I asked Rob. “We are going underground,”
he informed me. “We are taking all of our experience that we gained at
Tanzanite One, where we had to go to a depth of hundreds of metres to find more
Tanzanite, and we are going to hunt for this rare green treasure below ground.”
Basically speaking they had got to a depth where the costs of mining
underground was expected to be less than excavating thousands and thousands of
tonnes in the open pit mine.
To help with this project they hired Kevin. Kevin also
played a big part in the successful Tanzanite One mine. He’s a great guy who
has four generations of mining in his blood. That evening, over a cold beer,
Kevin explained to me how he and his wife had bought a farm in South Africa and
when he retires he would like to start future generations of his family off in
farming.
Back to the mine: we put on our overalls, hard hat and torch
and started the long and steep trek underground. Kevin explained how one of the
biggest challenges facing anyone who wants to mine underground in the Fwaya
Fwaya Emerald belt is that many of the layers of rock you have to blast through
are soft - especially in the rainy season when they soak up a lot of water,
making them both heavy and unstable. In these areas a strong expertise in
holding up your mine shaft roof is essential. Normally a comment like this as
we descend down a deep mine shaft would unnerve me, but with Kevin I knew we
were in the hands of an expert miner.
Unlike many of the mines I have descended in Madagascar,
where they are made of compressed sandstone, many of these layers we were
travelling through were dense, tough igneous rock. I was amazed when Kevin
informed me that his small team of about 10 miners were able on average to
progress a metre everyday. That’s amazing for a mine shaft that’s around 4
metres in diameter. When I asked how well the shaft was doing in terms of
yield, he only answered with a smile. As I write this diary of events on my
plane journey back home, I still don’t know if that meant the underground
project was doing really well and he didn’t want anyone to know or that they
were yet to find a reaction zone that was providing sufficient gem-quality
Emeralds to justify the cost.
That evening we all sat around talking about the day’s
events. When I got back to my room, I took out a piece of Zambian Emerald that
I had purchased earlier in the year (I had taken it along to use in the
filming) and started to stare at it and to really study it to a level I had
never done before. I viewed it with the naked eye, I took out my 10x loupe, and
I used my dichroscope. I must have spent an hour or so studying it. This was
not my usual technical assessment or detailed financial valuation that I would
normally carry out on a gemstone, but more of a personal “getting to know you
better” type of experience. Eventually, I hid the gem back under the lining of
my suitcase and as I turned and saw my son fast asleep - as I could feel the
presence of a few feeding beasts flying around the room - I tucked in his
mosquito net and turned off the light and lay in my bed in total appreciation
of my first experience of seeing Emeralds actually at the mine face.
I stirred at around 5am with my mathematical brain in
overdrive. If it takes the excavation of 12 million grams to discover 1 gram of
rough Emerald, and then if our yield after cutting and faceting each gemstone
is only 7 to 8%, and then if an Emerald weighing over 1ct is only approximately
one in a thousand pieces, and then if we are assigning 80% of our Emeralds as
bead quality, then a 1ct Emerald with nice transparency is... erm... erm...
erm... 90 million to one. No - 180 million to one! No - 70 million to one! I
gave up trying to work it out when Matt’s alarm clock went off half scaring me
to death.
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Steve examining an Emerald through a Dichroscope. |
Our first stop was to a local school that had been built
with the help of the company. This was not just a matter of providing funding,
but also managing the project both technically speaking and in pulling together
all of the local people and farmers, setting up a PTA (parent/teachers
association) etc. The school is not quite what you would imagine in the UK.
There was no electricity (in fact the nearest electricity is still some 10km
away), there is no glass in the windows and even the roof is made of corrugated
metal sheets. However, if you ever want to see a group of children (180 in
total) singing and smiling and full of enthusiasm and hope, then there is no
experience that comes close to visiting schools like this. Their teacher, 33
year old Chola Mondo, told me that prior to the school being built by the
Emerald mining company, children had to walk 6km to the nearest school. This
long journey meant that attendance was appalling and most children simply
stayed at home and helped their family with their sustenance farming.
When the school knew we were coming, the teacher asked for
as many parents as possible to turn up and show their appreciation for the
Emerald mining company. Over 90 parents left their fields to turn up and meet
us. What happened next brought the second tear to my eye during the trip. One
little boy called John and a little girl who was too shy to tell me her name
read out a poem they had written in English.
Outside the classroom I showed my son one of the methods I
had used in Africa many years ago to amuse the children (and a lot of parents
too). I took my digital camera out and started taking photos of them,
immediately after I clicked the shutter I turned the camera around and showed
them their picture on the LED screen. This always without exception sends
children into fits of laughter. You see, many of them have never seen a picture
of themselves before. The more I click and show, the more they laugh, the more
they laugh the more I click and eventually the whole classroom is rolling
around with laughter. I promised Chola Mondo that I would send printouts of all
the children and he felt they would love it.
Next, we went to a farming area where Gemfields had got 13
farms to come together, and they had funded and educated the community on how
to best grow certain grains, fruit and vegetables. Prior to setting up the
scheme all the families only farmed to produce food for their own family.
Today, the community not only produce their own food but also enough food to
feed all of the 400 workers at the mine. Gemfields pay the farms the proper
market rates for their produce and with their income (the first cash most of
these families have earned) Gemfields then advise them on how to build better
homes and how to invest in farming equipment etc. Today the project is going so
well that the community also sell their food in the town of Kitwe.
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Steve with local children. |
Just imagine previously having to give birth in your hut
with no one around to offer you proper medical advice. On the steps of the
clinic I met a lady holding a two week old baby boy whom she said she had named
John. John was actually born in the clinic and is fit and well. The clinic also
helps those suffering with AIDS, TB and Malaria. After meeting everyone at the
clinic we moved to the building adjacent and here I witnessed some of the
smartest charity work I have ever seen. The clinic, with the help of Gemfieldsand their ability to manage large projects, had recruited and trained over 40
people from the local community to start a Home Base Care Scheme (HBCS), and
every single one of its volunteers had turned up to see us. These unpaid
workers, when we arrived, started dancing and singing gospel songs and (to the
embarrassment of my son) I found myself joining in.
These HBCS volunteers are amazing. They visit every dwelling
in the area discussing all sorts of life-saving issues, from avoiding AIDS, to
making sure pregnant women have mosquito nets in their home. They inform locals
of the availability of medicines and of what help the clinic can provide them.
We said our goodbyes to these amazing people (“shikura” in
native tongue) and set off back to the mine. Once back within the secure
compound, my son Matt, who was completely taken back by these events, commented
how different life was within the compounds of the mine, where the miners had
running water, access to food and even electricity until 11pm.
The next day it was time to leave for the UK, we said
shikura to all of the management team who had been our hosts for the week. Ian,
with his amazing commercial skills and vision for the coloured gemstone
industry: Gabriella, for her amazing gemstone knowledge and organising our
whole trip and to CV, Rob, Kevin and Adrian whose knowledge and passion of
gemstone mining is world-class.
As we drove out of the final security gate, the security
guard tapped on the window where my son was sitting, Matt took one look at his
AK47 and almost wet his pants! He had no idea what he did wrong, he was
petrified because the day before he had filmed the guard in the documentary he
had been making for Gems TV. As he wound down the window the security guard
handed Matt a piece of paper and the message said, “I am now on Facebook,
here’s my address, please post me copies of my pictures.” We fell about with
laughter. Even the security guard must have realised what Matt was thinking as
he was instructed by a six foot tall, rifle-bearing guard to wind down the
window and he burst out laughing too. As the security barrier opened and we
drove off I said “look how the world moves so quick and how imbalanced it is.
Here’s a security guard with access to the internet and the school 1km down the
road can’t even get electricity.”
What did we learn? We learnt that Zambia is a country full
of smiles and warm hearts. It’s the Thailand of Africa in that regard. It’s a
country that still needs a lot of help: not just financially, but in terms of
professional guidance in all areas of life. But back to what we set out to
discover - Emerald’s are an incredible miracle of nature. They bear the battle
scars of the difficult environment in which they grew up in 500 million years
ago. We learnt that they are beautiful from the moment they are unearthed and
we learnt that even in one square foot of one vast mine, no two Emeralds look
even remotely the same and are as individual and unique as two people living on
the same street.
Rediscover Emeralds: a gem of natural beauty.
Footnote: Two months after returning to the UK, Gems TV,
through its own Colourful Life Foundation and Gemfields, launched a charitable
joint venture to build a second classroom at the Lwamisamba School and also to
make an extension to the School at Kapila. In addition to the two school
projects, Gems TV and Gemfields will continue to fund the community driven
“Blessings Farmers Project”.
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