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Colored Gemstone
Blue Beauty
Amazonite is a blue gemstone found in the mountains of Peru.
By Sheryl Jones
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| Photo courtesy Saulo Matias. |
Hidden in the beautiful lush green wilderness in the central highlands of Peru close to a small village, Huancamayo, in the Junín region, is a mine called Mercedes that produces blue- and green-colored amazonite gemstones. Named after the Amazon River, amazonite is a feldspar family mineral. While feldspar is the second most abundant mineral after quartz, amazonite is the only variety considered to be gemstone quality.
Amazonite’s soft color tones and light sheen make it a desirable stone that has become popular in the past three to five years because it’s a less costly and more readily available alternative to natural turquoise, which has become expensive and harder to find. In fact, the green-colored amazonite has also been mistaken for jade due to its color and sheen. Amazonite can be made into large beads in 10 mm sizes and up or into cabochon cuts. As a result, it’s a favorite with designers who want to create big looks at affordable prices for their customers.
Mining amazonite is a family business at Minadera Torres SAC. Saulo Matias, who co-owns Mercedes with his great uncle Jose Torres, is currently the biggest supplier of Peruvian amazonite. Another uncle, Alex Torres, helps sell the amazonite the mine produces through M&T Trading, from the premium AAA quality, which is a beautiful turquoise blue, to the more commercial-grade AA quality that is lighter in color and contains impurities like quartz. The premium AAA quality sells from $23 to $25 per kilogram and the AA quality ranges from $14 to $16 per kilogram, while A quality amazonite is $6 to $10 per kilogram.
How these beautiful stones get from the remote location of the mine to market is a long, dangerous, but rewarding trek. It is an eight-hour perilous journey from Lima, the largest city near them where they market their goods, to this remote region near Huancamayo. Matias says the arduous trip begins in a pick-up truck along dusty, treacherous winding roads that are vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season. After a six-hour ride, he reaches a small village perched on top of a mountain called Huachocolpa, in the Huancavelica region, where he leaves the car and starts walking for five more hours through the jungle to reach the mine. Continues Matias, “We walk down the mountain to our mine with all the food and water we can carry in temperatures that can reach over 100 degrees.” He adds that they rent mules that carry up to 66 pounds of food, water and equipment through the jungle to the mine. The mules are used to carry the gems from the mine back to the village, where they are loaded in the car for transport to Lima.
Amazonite is formed in vertical or horizontal veins inside rocks buried deep in the mountains. Matias’ mine has horizontal veins that are about 13 feet wide, requiring drilling to about 131 feet in depth to reach stones that he considers reasonable quality. The technician first marks the points to drill after which a small hole is drilled in which explosives are placed in order to blast the rock apart. Once the rocks are blasted, workers remove the rocks and sort them, sending the pieces with amazonite to another group of workers who hammer the pieces until they get the cleanest possible amazonite. Approximately nine to eleven workers help operate the mine as part of an agreement Matias says they have with the Huancamayo village. “After a training program, the local villagers are assigned work,” explains Matias, in a variety of jobs including “maintenance of the camp tent, cooking and sometimes field work in order to learn the mining process.”
It can be challenging to balance the expectations of customers who want a certain quality at a competitive price with what the mine is able to produce. Production can be delayed for many reasons, says Matias. “No phone signal means that if they need more food or fuel it can usually take around four days to resolve the problem, with some machinery parts taking more than a week. “And of course, as soon as one problem is solved, there is something else that happens and needs to be fixed. So we have to deal with many things in managing a mine.”
Managing the workers and ensuring their well-being is very critical to Matias. He says, “It is more important for me is to keep my people happy, giving them all they need — food and supplies to work — and paying salaries on time. I do my best to give them an opportunity to learn new skills.” He goes on to say, “Also, as a mine owner, I try to stay aware of the needs of the village and talk to the villagers from Huancamayo in order to help them improve their lifestyle. Our company has a goal to help the villagers by giving information and economic help and creating social projects together with the assistance of the regional government, like helping to provide electricity and building roads.”
With so many challenges, why did Matias decide to go into mining? He says, “ I have an industrial and commercial engineer bachelor’s degree from the University of Lima and this gave me a huge perspective about the industrial process and trading. I also studied abroad in The Netherlands, where I began to build customer contacts from Hong Kong and the U.S.” Knowledge of the industrial process along with marketing avenues and family connections gave him the courage to start his own mine as soon as possible. He goes on to say, “Then I met a great person, Blaine Yates, who wanted to invest and that helped us get the machinery, license and the inventory of supplies, including the food, fuel, explosives — everything we needed to start mining.”
As the demand for blue gemstones in pale to intense blue shades continues, the challenges of getting goods from the mine to market will pay off, making Matias’ decision to open his own mine a good bet.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - April 2016. To subscribe click here.
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