Illakaka - small village to boom town

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Today was the day we were all waiting for…. entering the sprawling town of Illakaka, as seen in the photo below. There is a stream that crosses from left to right, at the juncture of the now paved RN7 roadway. This is the location of the 65 original inhabitants who were here when it all began in the early 90's.

Of course, this all changed due to the Sapphire rush. The town swelled to 65,000 at its peak, but is now somewhere in the 35,000 range according to government estimates.

The photo below is typical of the 'housing' in the town.

Illakaka has the appearance of a "wild-west-town" as seen in movies made about America's frontier times of the mid-1800's.

And then, right next door, we are reminded of the great value laying beneath the earth.

The 'Banque Suisse' moniker was in reference to its value to the region - as it brought in buyers from around the world.

We've now entered the famed 'Banque Suisse' property with Jean Noel-proprietor as our guide.

This is a vast dig covering several acres as seen in these photos.

Some view?

In the photo below is Jean Noel with Jim Fiebig.

Even today, there is a significant dig just getting started only 250 metres away from the original pit on his property.

This is a small operation with husband and wife working together just a few metres away from the original site.

Leaving the highlands for Illakaka

June 30, 2008
Time to introduce the crew -- starting from the left
1st-Naomi Sarna of New York City, gem carver
2nd-Lisa Elser of Vancouver, faceter and rough dealer
3rd-Tom Schlegel, Lisa's husband, and photographer
4th-the infamous Mr. James Fiebig of North Carolina, adventurer and team leader
5th-Roger Dery of Michigan, faceter
6th-Nancy Schuring of Wyckoff New Jersey, owner - Devon Fine Jewelry
7th-Debbie of Wyckoff New Jersey, lead staff person of Devon Fine Jewelry
8th-Joe Portale of Ridgefield New Jersey, dentist, photographer and marketing guru and lover of gemstones

Leaving Antsirabe and the central highlands this morning, our next objective is the town of Fianarantsoa - commonly known as Fianar. The drive from Antsirabe to the mining fields of Illakaka is really too far to try and attempt in one day - hence the stop over in Fianar. This stop is so that we may have a reasonable hotel and restaurant to take care of our basic needs.

As we were approaching Fianar, I took a photo of one of the many bus stops along the famed RN7. We all felt that Jim selected an awesome driver and guide - would hate to think we'd be using public transport in Mada.

Here's another bus stop, a little closer to the town.

And, then, if we really wanted some adventure..... looks vaguely similar to the rickshaws I used in India and Sri Lanka.

Just before we arrived in Fianar, we stopped along the roadway to stretch our legs. 'Out of nowhere' all these children arrive. So Nancy begins handing out gifts to each one.

After a day's drive we stopped at a park along the route to Illakaka.

Tourmaline mine!

June 29, 2008
Antsirabe, historically, was the hub of gem trade in Madagascar. But today it is relegated to third place behind Tana (where most anything can be acquired) and then Illakaka - where it is primarily about corundum, though other items show up as well.














Yes, it started out a leisurely path, then 2.5 hours later.















The hills surrounding Antsirabe are rippled with outcroppings - and this is currently where the majority of Madagascar’s Tourmaline is mined. The area surrounding the village of Ibity [pronounced “Ibeet”], roughly 30 kilometers outside of Antsirabe, is the source of anything worthwhile. And so that’s where we were headed today.















The area is peppered with hills all winding their way to about 6,000 feet where the mining is taking place.















From where the road ended where we left our vehicle, it was just over 2.5 hours hiking time. Some of the hiking was over indented double-tracks into the high grass, left behind by four-wheel drive vehicles. But most of the track was a bit more rustic....
















Upon arrival we were greeted by about 40 workers, mostly men but a few women as well. With the water source in the valley below, this is all hard rock mining. Let me be clear, this is difficult work.
















Generally, they are working in teams with either 2, 3 or 4 miners. A circular hole is dug roughly a meter or so across and this is their working space.















Then they begin the hard work following a seam into the earth. Some of the pits were as much as 30 meters deep. For the deeper pits, there would be a crudely constructed hand/rope/wood wench used to lower a person to the latest working depth, as seen here.















Difficult to make out in the photo below, but there is a miner being lowered into the shaft.
















These miners were carrying their hand-made sieve boxes to the site. It appeared to us the mining crews took their tools with them each morning and night - probably to prevent poaching of their sites.






























As gravels were revealed in the open pits using their hand tools, a reinforced style plastic bag or sack was lowered to the men in the pit. They shoveled the dirt and all it contained into the sack and then it was raised by rope to the surface.















They would dump the sack into hand fabricated sieves with rudimentary frames to hold the screen. This probably as low tech as it gets.













Once sieved, the crystal fragments or other potential workable items are set aside [that is, if there are any]. The balance of the diggings are dropped to another area that may have already been worked. Not exactly well executed re-claiming of the land, but this is better than what I witnessed in Namibia.














We visited with the miners for over an hour while we shared water bottles and viewed whatever rough they were willing to display. They allowed us to take some photos and then we headed back to Antsirabe. With roughly five hours total hiking time over difficult terrain, 6,000 feet elevation, warm temperatures and no cloud cover - we were burned out. Definately time for a shower, and maybe a beer or two.

onto Antsirabe

June 28, 2008
We left our confines in Tana this morning and headed four hours south to the Tourmaline mining areas and gem marketplace in Antsirabe - pronounced [ann-sara -bay].

This river flows from the centre of the country out to the Indian ocean.

But here, near Antsirabe, it is used for washing clothes amongst other necessary functions. The colors you see on the far bank are the cleaned clothes scattered amongst the bushes so they can dry in the sun.

The rolling hills of the Malagasy countryside were lush and beautiful. The landscape was painted with rice paddy outlines as far as one could see as we weaved our way through the hills and valleys, occasionally passing through villages where we witnessed poverty and happiness in the same breadth. This stark contrast is a constant reminder of how fortunate I am.

When they refer to market-place here, it does not necessarily refer to the gems we were searching for.

On arrival, we checked into our hotel - a former Norwegian hot springs spa built in the 1930's. I’m thinking, “we’re not doing too badly so far“…. hot and cold running water, showers and toilets I recognize, French cuisine; what could be better?

Yeah, it was tough....

We moved on to our next opportunity. Close to the hotel is a marketplace known as “the Circle of Mess”. Not quite sure what is its meaning, but there were about 40 small booths set up in a ‘L’ shape with a dealer (or two) in each one. Sometimes the children assisted or played nearby.

The majority of what we were shown were in cut goods, with rough taking a distant second place here. I didn’t find anything for me, though some of the crew were having fun with all the esoteric pieces and crystals. It was clear to all of us that we were not yet working with the local top tier dealers - tomorrow they said.

Seen here, Lisa Elser on the left and Naomi Sarna on the right.... negotiating for some specimens.

Another view

Nightfall set in and we headed back to our hotel for another fine French meal. Since I don’t read or speak French I had to guess what I was receiving for dinner - I can only presume that is part of the fun of travel? I did finally figure out Langouste, Crevettes, Poulet, Poisson and others.

the IGM school in Tana

Still in Tana... visiting the IGM school.














Prior to our heading south to Antsirabe, we visited the government run gemmology and lapidary school that was created several years ago with the assistance of Tom Cushman, Charles Carmona and several others. The school was recently moved into the building shown in the above photo. As our way of contributing back to the industry, we are considering sponsoring students who can not afford to go through the program on their own. As a rough estimate, it costs only US$400 for one student / per month for the lapidary section. This is not including room and board for the term though.

***and as a special note: Nancy Schuring of Devon Fine Jewelry has set up a special non-profit corporation to assist with funding for local Madagascan students interested in the gem or jewelry trade. Nancy, and the Devon Foundation, can be contacted here: 201-848-8489***

A photo showing the general set up in the faceting section. There was also a typical lapidary and gemmological area as well.

On one side of this room there was a series of Imahashi style dual set-up faceting machines. They use six inch laps driven on a pulley system - so they all run at the same speed. Each table consists of four faceters running off one central motor, powering both ends with students on each side, opposing each other. Each 'machine' has two platforms pointed toward the center-driven platen.

Here's a close up of one student. They are all trained to use loupes in lieu of the typical magnification visor used by many North American and European faceters.

Found this photo interesting.... seems they also use the software, 'GemCad', developed by Robert Strickland of Texas.

Oh yea.... for you gem cutters out there, they are primarily dopping with wax. I know... no one asked.

Up and running - meeting with dealers

June 27, 2008 - Friday
This is Jim Fiebig - in the upper left with the black ball cap - our project leader. To his right is Tom Schlegel from Vancouver, who assisted in many ways, but was instrumental in tackling all the photography stuff for the trip. In front of Tom is his wife, Lisa Elser (with loupe in hand). Lisa is a faceter and dealer in faceting rough. Then, to her right is Nancy and Debbie from Devon Fine Jewelry of northern New Jersey. They were having a blast on this trip and made awesome travel partners. Today, everything broke loose. Jim had been working the phones the day before to arrange for a gathering of the local dealers, and they showed. From 2pm until sunset, the rough and cut stone dealers came to take their best shot. I lost count, but somewhere around 40 dealers came through our “special hotel balcony arrangement“ in a matter of hours. They were all vying for our attentions, and money. This is especially true now since there has been an embargo in place restricting the movement of rough out of the country since February 2008. They were hungry to show us anything and everything.

It was at this event that we worked on sharpening our negotiating skills. Technique here is very similar to what I’ve experienced in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, mainland Africa and South America. They, of course, started very high - so high that it was laughable. Then, we responded with ridiculous offers that surely would have embarrassed us back home. And so, back and forth we went until somewhere in the middle it reached an equilibrium to everyone’s agreement; though not necessarily everyone’s satisfaction.

Dealers were very eager - as you can see in their faces. He is holding a large Aquamarine specimen.

As to be expected, there were some mishaps too. Not every stone turned out to be what it was purported to be. In one parcel of large Aqua’s there were two Aqua-colored glass imitations. Surprisingly, they were offered by one of the “big hitters” in the local Tana market. Really, we were in one of the poorest countries in the world, and the local dealers had the skills and the ability to take advantage of anyone who made themselves available. Fortunately for us, one of our team picked these two simulants out of the batch. Always handy to have some gemological tools with us.

So here’s a short list of some of the items acquired, or wished we acquired….
1-The finest pink color Morganite that I have ever seen - and at first we thought is was Tourmaline. Way too included to be faceted stones, but may work for some cutters as cabbed goods. Cost at $400 to $500 per gram - and they were large pieces, 10 to 80 grams each.

2-Golden Scapolite… though first presented as Golden Beryl, it was still interesting and in reasonably good sizes.

3-Lots of richly colored Amethyst with many in sizes that would produce 10 to 30 carat size stones. The same goes for Citrine, though it was the golden color only.

4-Very little Ruby, rough or cut goods. But that is pretty much what we’d heard would happen. The only goods we were shown were glass-filled Ruby rough just returned from Chanthaburi.

5-Bags of blue Sapphire rough, but it was only good for cutting melee and smalls. There were only a few pieces of larger roughs but as they were being sold as singles it would be about the same price as buying them already cut. So we didn’t bother. Most looked just like Sri Lankan goods.

6-Sphene, lots of it. Included goods were in abundance, none were selected that day. [though we did buy some at a later date]

7-Tourmalines, mostly in the ‘green range’, but not quite a green that I would find attractive, or could be able to sell.

8-Rose Quartz - nice goods were available, though none were selected. I am sure we were all thinking this is something that could be picked up most anytime, whether here or in Tucson. So there was no urgency to fuss with it.

Well that is the bulk of what we saw today - as we know it will change as we move about to the different markets in the country. Time to rest our eyes, have a few beers and chat about today’s finds.

Takes a big personality to take a picture of one's self and hand it off for distribution.... this is Tom Cushman who assisted us as we pursued rough dealers throughout the country.

Immersed in Mada

Hi all,
Internet access is skimpy at best here in Madagascar. In the internet cafe's they have a simple 56K telephone line that is shared with four or more computers, and sometimes more than ten! So it is slow going.

A 'light pipe' is being installed on the ocean floor from Mozambique but they say to not expect hook ups until mid-2009. Oh well....

As for the country, it is beautiful, scenic and exotic, hilly to mountainous, the food is awesome and the people are friendly usually offering a quick smile anytime one's eyes meet. As expected, poverty is rampant, street beggars are everywhere - though primarily in the capitol and will hardly leave you alone.













This is our first major buying opportunity on our arrival. We are looking at rough and cut stones. The dealers, even though they were informed to only bring rough, figured they may as well show everything they have.

In the above photo I am chatting with Naomi Sarna, a gem carver from New York City as she works through her decisions.

In the background, is Julie a close friend of Jim Fiebig's [the project organizer]. Julie's day job consists of working in a bank conducting international transactions - she has been instrumental in her assistance to the team. That is, in addition to all the languages she is fluent in!

That is all for now, have to go meet up with the team. More later....

1st day - the whirlwind tour of city centre

June 26, 2008
Jim Fiebig, our advisor, took us around the city centre for four hours today so that we can ‘get our legs’ for the country. We learned the capitol’s full name, Antananarivo, literally means; “cannot be defeated by 1,000 warriors“ -- though I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, but we had great fun with it anyway.

This photo was taken during their annual holiday celebration.













The city centre is located in a central valley - with hundred’s of steps leading down to the main square often referred to as L' Avenue. The center section is a walking district with many shops, restaurants, money-changers and store fronts with roadway circumnavigating the area. Today, the 26th of June, is the country’s national holiday similar to what July 4th is in the USA. So the town square and local streets are filled with families walking here and there, enjoying their time off from work.

Before we started working with the dealers, we took a drive in the hills area above the city. As you can see in this photo, the city stretches for quite a distance. Yes.... that is smog, not just a hazy day.













We took lunch around 1pm, and then set up tables on the balcony overlooking the festival on the streets below us. Rough and cut stone dealers began to show up around 2pm or so. As a team, we spent the next three hours immersing ourselves into ‘buying mode’ with our nifty collection of gemological tools and our new dealer friends. Seems everyone came away happy as all of us spent some money, and the dealers left a little lighter.

After the day-and-a-half flight to get to Mada, my body requests rest, so I’ll try to write more tomorrow.

Arrival in Tana

June 25th; 2008
We arrived very late in the evening on our AirFrance flight from Paris to Ivato airport just north of Tana, the capitol. The flight was on time, but my checked bag did not arrive with me, so I’ll have to scramble a bit to line up clothes and such for the next couple of days. Everyone else on the trip arrived okay. The only mishap was that Naomi Sarna [the gem carver from New York] broke one of her toes prior to our arrival [she arrived a week early to work the fossil markets]. She’s hopping about some, but seems she will be okay soon.

and, as a FYI...
***Broadband connections do not exist yet in Madagascar. So please be patient for photos and postings as they may be intermittent, or not at all, until my return***

Prepping for Madagascar - summer 2008

Working today on packing all the goods necessary to make the passage to Madagascar. Am currently just *over the limit* for weight on international flights with my stowed bag as well as the carry-on. Not worried though, because this time I am seated in business class so they probably won't make it an issue. I may even sleep on the way over.... a novelty!

I fly on Tuesday evening, the 24th. Have a short layover in Amsterdam, shuttle flight to Paris, then late in the morning we fly AirFrance to Tana, the capitol of Madagascar. It happened to work out that six of the seven of my trip-mates are all on the same AirFrance flight to Tana. Very convenient, I thought. Will give us a chance to become acquainted with each other prior to our land-based travel. We are going to have a blast.