Production and distribution of sapphires from Andranondambo, Malagasy

Sapphire from Andranondambo; blue color phantom. 28x

When one of the authors (EG) visited the village in June 1996 and manifested some interest in buying sapphires, he was soon surrounded by a large crowd of miners and village folk showing and offering him sapphires, and he gained the impression that there were great quantities of gems in the hands of the natives, though most of the stones were small (between 0.5 and 2.0 cts.) and of medium to low gem quality, yet good enough for gemmological research.