African Rough Gemstones

AFRICAN ROUGH GEMSTONES by Ikem Onwude M.D.

Gemstones are truly beautiful and have been very widely distributed by God to various nations of the world including Africa. These fascinating little treasures that add value to the owner are found in very unique unexpected areas and have been mined in Africa for several decades. African gemstones are truly beautiful! Have you ever looked at them and admired their true beauty?

The countries in Africa that are most endowed with these treasured natural precious materials, include: NIGERIA, KENYA, TANZANIA, ZAMBIA, MOZAMBUIQUE AND SENEGAL with Nigeria been the very most endowed as a little bit of most gemstones can be found here including Diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and ruby.

Ultimately I invest in these precious tiny stones found in Africa because it is worthwhile and it adds value to me and my loved ones. Rough collecting is definitely a profitable venture as I mainly sell most of the roughs I collect, have few cut and polish and just keep a few roughs in my cupboard. Most of the roughs I collect are usually between VS to IF quality except in the cases where the inclusions are a natural part of the stone specie such as the cases of emeralds.

I am currently a practicing medical doctor and have been collecting and selling gemstones over the past 7 years. I grew up in Jos Plateau a little town in the north central part of Nigeria. Jos has been known for its abundant solid mineral resources including Tin, Columbite and Tantalite which was Nigeria’s main source of revenue in the 19th century. It’s a very hospitable and communal town as we freely mixed up and had friends of varying religion and ethnicity (however, things may not be quite the same right now…).

Thanks to Umar Abbas, I picked interest in the gemstone business during my early years at the university as he was very instrumental in helping me out with the technical aspects of gemstone trading.

Gemstone trading here in Nigeria as it is in most African countries is basically a one-sided affair as we buy the roughs and sell them to foreigners overseas. Rough purchasing could be a herculean task as the ordinary miner is not always very easy to deal with. Actual purchasing is done either by having roughs brought to you by several miners or their agents at your location or by actually going to the mining areas and buying from the miners. The mines are usually owned by few individuals that have secured the lease permit from the government and then employ workers to dig for them. The workers are given daily food and maybe stipend are often paid with roughs gotten from the mines as they share the roughs at a percentage of about 30 – 70 with the mine owners (I don’t own any mine….). However, roughs can be purchased in some areas in informal rough gemstones markets as seen at Abuja-leather market in Ibadan in Oyo and at bauchi road in Jos Plateau.

Since I no longer reside in Jos as I now work in Abuja – the federal capital territory of Nigeria, a typical buying trip for me is a weekend to Jos. Few days before the weekend; I call up my contacts and let them know I’ll be coming to town. Most times, they’ve already communicated to me the kind of materials they posses weeks before this crucial time. Some of my contacts are not actually in Jos but reside at the outskirt of Jos town and I make it a point of duty to stop by along the way and inspect parcels.

Rough selection and purchase in this part of the world could be complicated as every supplier wants to sell the entire lot to you and would prefer you not to pick pieces from the lots; those that do agree to that, would actually charge sky-rocketing fees for their roughs. This is a major problem in getting roughs from Africa as the miner/supplier most time chooses not to sell part of the roughs and instead opts for all-or-none. Sometimes, we are forced to buy them that way, then gradually hand pick them, categorize them and either stow away the low quality ones or sell them to buyers who are more into the cabbing roughs especially in India and China.

Funny enough, most people out there think that these gemstones from Africa come really cheap or next to nothing…. Not anymore, most times, we often find it difficult meeting the near constant market values of these things as the average miner here is really beginning to want a premium for his roughs especially after hand picking them and having to get rid of the cab grade roughs.

However, it is rather unfortunate to know that these vast natural resources are not properly utilized in these countries where they are found. Hence, the need to export them to countries and places where they can be put into better use especially in the jewelry industries where they are mostly used in making beads, bangles and rings meant for very unique special occasions as weddings and anniversaries.

Most of my rough gemstones are sold to individual facetters, specimen collectors, rough gemstone dealers and other buyers who want to make specific jewelries out of them. These people reside mainly in the USA, Australia, Canada and Israel, with few residing in pocket of places in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Some of my most interesting clients have been the facetters I’ve dealt with over the years as they are always very precise and specific with their dimensions and shapes. They don’t buy large parcels though but they do pay well for the pieces they want.

Some of the fantastic and fascinating roughs from Africa include:

Garnets: Nigerian garnets are often in the sperssartine, rhodolite, almandine or pyrope species. They get their red to orange hue large from the element iron (Fe) deep in the ground. Below is an example of some of my red-orange spessartite before and after cutting….

Red-Orange Spessartite Garnet Before Cutting

Spessartite After Cutting By Matt Dunkle

 


 


 


 

Sapphire: Nigerian Sapphires often come in bluish coloration and sometimes greenish and pinkish. The blue Corundum is often colored by iron or titanium.

Sapphire Gem Rough Before Cutting

Sapphire After Cutting By Matt Dunkle

 


 


 


 

Aquamarine: These are some of my most favorite collection as I like the variety of light blue, sea bluish-green to deep blue colors that makes this blue beryl so unique. They often get their pale blue color from Iron also.

Aquamarine Gem Rough Before Cutting

Aquamarine After Cutting By Matt Dunkle

 


 


 


 

Aquamarine Gem Rough Before Cutting

Aquamarine After Cutting By David Dawson

 


 


 


 



Other gemstones worthy of note here are:

Emeralds: Emerald is another form of beryl, this time in a green color due to the presence of both iron and titanium. However, emeralds from Zambia are known to be vanadium colored while emeralds from Brazil are said to be Chrome colored

Emerald Gem Rough

Tourmaline: The Nigerian tourmaline is known to be one of the best in the world as the variety of vivid colors it exhibits is quite astonishing. They often range from Green, blue, yellow, pink, red, bi-colors, multicolors to rubellite tourmalines.

Tourmaline Gem Rough

Amethyst: Amethyst is a colored form of quartz that gets its purple color from the presence of iron.

Amethyst Gem Rough

Zircons: Comes in variety of colors including blue, golden-brown, red and clear colored zircons. However, only the golden brown, red and clear colored ones exist in their natural forms in Nigeria.

Zircon Gem Rough

Topaz: Found in abundance in Nigeria but only the natural blue ones are most often of great value.

Topaz Gem Rough

Most of my rough gemstones can be ordered directly on my website: http://www.globalroughs.com/ or through my USA partner (Matt Dunkle in New mexico). Here you can get clean quality rough at reasonable prices. Payment is usually by Paypal, money gram or bank wire transfer.

By – Ikem Onwude (MD)

 

Ikem Onwude
Jos, Nigeria
enquiry@globalroughs.com
Global Roughs