Jump to content

Gemstone industry in Greenland

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Truenorthgems (talk | contribs) at 19:42, 25 March 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Greenland is the world's largest island located between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Gemstones have been found in Greenland, including diamond, ruby, pink sapphire, kornerupine, tugtupite, lapis lazuli, amazonite, peridot, quartz, spinel, topaz, and tourmaline.[1] Most of Greenland's ruby and pink sapphire occurrences are located near the village of Fiskenaesset/Qeqertarsuatsiaat on the southwest coast.

A total of 31 ruby and pink sapphire occurrences have been confirmed in the Fiskenaesset/Qeqertarsuatsiaat district. One of these occurrences, Aappaluttoq, is being developed for a potential mining operation.

When European scientists first arrived in Greenland over 200 years ago to study the geology, they encountered native Kalaallit (Greenlandic Inuit) people who were already familiar with the red gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, known as ruby.[2]

The native inhabitants continued to assist the European explorers with their ruby exploration, leading them to some half dozen locations, spread out for over a hundred miles along the southwest shores of Greenland, known as the Kitaa Coast.[3]

Ruby and sapphire are the red and blue gemstone varieties of corundum (Al₂O₃). Rubies are colored red by the presence of minute amounts of the element chromium, whereas sapphires are normally blue due to the presence of minute quantities of the elements iron and titanium.[4]

Gemmology

Ruby and pink sapphire are the red and pink varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminum-oxide mineral Al2O3. The pink/red colour is formed in corundum by adding the element chromium to its crystal structure. Spectroscopy of rubies from the Aappaluttoq occurrence in Greenland confirm the presence of chromium as well as showing absorption in the UV region indicating high Fe (iron) content.[5]

Characteristics reported in Thirangoon, 2009, include:

  • most of the crystals examined contained bohmite or kaolinite crystals. The presence of these minerals indicates the samples were not heat treated.
  • laser ablation studies confirm the presence of trace elements Ti, V, Cr, Fe, and Ga, which are similar to rubies from other sources. Aappaluttoq samples contained high Fe, low V, and low Ga content. Chromium content varied widely depending on the colour of the samples, ranging from light pink to dark red.
  • population-field plotting of trace elements shows a good separation of Aappaluttoq rubies from many other sources.

Geology

The ruby deposits of Fiskenæsset are Archaen aged and are contact metasomatic replacements in micaceous anorthosites. Corundum forms locally in both regional and contact metamorphic environments, as well as in hydrothermal settings. Ruby-bearing metasomatic zones typically formed along the amphibolite hangingwall contact of the chromite bearing and cumulate-layered Fiskenæsset anorthosite complex in close proximity to altered ultramafic rocks. Individually, ruby-bearing zones can measure up to 20 metres in thickness and up to 200 metres in length. They may occur as single showings, but are usually found in alignments of multiple showings, with some of the occurrences such as The Ruby Island Line collectively up to 3.5 kilometres in strike length, and as much as 100 metres in width.[6]

History

In 1966, gem-quality ruby was discovered in outcrop on what became known as Ruby Island by Dr. Martin Ghisler, with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). Ghisler’s scouts and support staff drew heavily from the knowledge of the native population of the nearby village of Fiskenaesset. The exploration team discovered ruby in association with the minerals sapphirine, kornerupine, pargasite, and phlogopite, confirming six ruby deposits in the Fiskenaesset district.[7]

During the 1970s, junior Canadian mining companies, among them Platinomino, Fiscannex, and Valhalla, explored the region for chromite and platinum and attempted, unsuccessfully, to commercialize the ruby occurrences near Fiskenaesset.[8]

Peter Appel (1995) with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, published a review of the six ruby deposits then known in the Fiskenaesset district and recognized sufficient potential to encourage further exploration. Based on his recommendations, two independent geologists named Bill Brereton and Bill Anderson consolidated the land holdings at Fiskenaesset.[9]

Exploration

In 2004, True North Gems, Inc., a small Canadian exploration company established to search for colored gemstones at high northern latitudes, acquired the Fiskenaesset property from Brereton and Anderson and identified the Greenland Ruby as an important colored gemstone occurence. The company was motivated by the success of their competitors in the Canadian diamond fields beginning in 1991.[10]

True North Gems hired local residents from Qeqertarsuatsiaat (formerly Fiskenaesset) and Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, to help explore the district and, over the course of the next three years, increased the number of ruby occurrences known from six to twenty nine. They bulk sampled the main deposits.[11] True North Gems paid for Canadian gem and jewelry experts to come to the community and train the locals in order to assist them in developing a cottage industry making ruby jewelry and mounting collector specimens.

In four years between 2004 and 2008, True North has collected a total of thirteen mini-bulk samples; from seven ruby showings: Siggartartulik; Lower Annertusoq; Upper Annertusoq; Kigutilik; Ruby Island; Qaqqatsiaq; and, Aappaluttoq. In 2004 and 2005, True North collected three tonne samples from each of Siggartartulik, Lower Annertusoq, Upper Annertusoq, Kigutilik, Ruby Island, and Qaqqatsiaq. In 2006, True North collected 30 tonnes from Kigutilik and from Aappaluttoq. In 2007 True North collected three separate samples at Aappaluttoq totalling 82.8 tonnes. In 2008, an additional 125 tonnes of material was collected from Aappaluttoq by blasting and 30-40 tonnes of ruby bearing overburden was collected.[12] To date True North Gems has not sold any ruby material as it is not permitted to do so until it has received a mining permit.

A total of 6,974 metres of diamond drilling has been completed in 65 holes drilled in 2007 and 2008. Ruby and pink sapphire has been found in 48 of the holes. At Aappaluttoq, the ruby and pink sapphire mineralization occurs in a corundum (ruby-sapphire) alteration band that exhibits trench-to-trench and drill hole-to-drill hole continuity. This corundum band is contained within a broader phlogopite and pargasite-enriched alteration zone referred to as the Host Zone Alteration. The ruby mineralization at the Aappaluttoq prospect has now been traced in drilling and surface exposures over a strike length of 135 metres and a vertical depth of 143 metres. The closely associated Aappaluttoq Deep Zone has now been traced in drilling over a strike length of 85 metres and continues to vertical depths of 70–143 metres below surface. Both zones remain open along strike and to depth.[13]

In 2007 True North Gems drilled a ruby deposit in the Fiskenaesset district at a place called Aappaluttoq Ridge. The company was accused of discouraging the villagers from Qeqertarsuatsiaat and and elsewhere in Greenland from coming into the area of their active exploration to remove rubies, even though it was argued that the Greenlanders had the right of mineral access under “Section 32” of the country’s Mineral Resources Act administerd by the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (www.bmp.gl). Section 32 was argued to confirm not only native people's right of access to the land to hunt and fish and prospect for minerals for their own purposes, but also to hand mine gem grade ruby material, even on the legal exploration licenses of other parties. Later legal interpretation established that the right of mineral access did not extend to the removal of gem grade material. This interpretation was contested on the grounds that, among other things, that Denmark as a signature to the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights should allow such activity as a sustainable livelihoods opportunity.

Recent politics

The 16 August Union generated a paper and electronic email petition in support of their cause. They obtained over 3500 signatures from a country with only 57,000 people, about 4.5% of the population.[14] Another 1000 people internationally signed over the internet. As of September 2008, the Greenland Parliament is now debating the rights of the native people under Section 32, versus a new proposal by the BMP that would require Greenlanders to follow the same rules and regulations of large scale mining companies, which are accountable for their mining activities and must pass a number of hurdles in demonstrating public benefit before they mine and generate any profit.

The 16 August Union contends that the natives cannot afford the high cost and the new burdens. They claim that BMP’s actions amount to an economic apartheid, where the government favors foreign mining interests who have followed old mining laws set out for mining over Greenlanders such as Madsen. True North Gems the foreign mining company contends that it has the support of the Greenlandic community of Fiskenaesset, where the rubies are located, and that the 16 August Union are self-interested Greenlanders who do not represent the local community or Greenlanders in general.This contention is contestable as in July 2008 at a public meeting in Fiskenaesset in the presence of True North Executives the majority of this community expressed desire for True North to leave the area and that their presence was resented.

True North Gems is operating in compliance with Greenlandic law, which allows sampling and documentation of material for the purposes of proving economic viability of a commercial operation. To date True North Gems has not sold any ruby, received any legal bankable income from the exploration of the Greenland Ruby and paid no royalty or taxes to the Greenland exchequer. The 16th August Union is looking for the law makers to uphold their constitutional claim to traditional rights under section 32 of the mineral act and in doing so create the opportunity for responsible small scale mining to take place.[15]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Thirangoon, 2009
  2. ^ Giesecke, 1833
  3. ^ Boggild, 1953
  4. ^ Hughes, 1997
  5. ^ Thirangoon, 2009
  6. ^ Weston, 2009
  7. ^ Petersen and Secher, 1993
  8. ^ Geisler, 1983
  9. ^ Anderson, 1995
  10. ^ True North Gems
  11. ^ Rohtert and Ritchie, 2006
  12. ^ Weston, 2009
  13. ^ Weston, 2009
  14. ^ Madsen, Niels. "Injustice Against Greenland's Inuit Continues." Fair Jewelry Action. 3 March 2009 (retrieved 26 Dec 2010)
  15. ^ Choyt, Marc. "Andrew Lee Smith, CEO of True North Gems: An Exclusive Fairjewelry.org Interview." Fair Jewelry Action. 25 Sept 2010 (retrieved 26 Dec 2010)

References

  • Anderson, W.J., 1995, Economic geology and exploration potential of the Frederikshab Isblink – Sondre Stromfjord area: Greenland Geological Survey Open File Series 94/18, 30 pp.
  • Boggild, O.B., 1953, The mineralogy of Greenland: Meddr. Greenland, v. 149, n. 3, 442 pp.
  • Geisler, R.A., 1976, The ruby deposits at Fiskenaesset, Greenland: Canadian Gemmologist, v. 1, n. 2, p. 4.
  • Ghisler, M., and Windley, B.F., 1967, The chromite deposits of the Fiskenaesset region, west Greenland: Greenland Geological Survey Report No. 12, 39 pp.
  • Giesecke, K.L., 1833, Mineralogiske Rejse I Gronland (1806–1813): ved C.F. Jornstrop v. 35.
  • Hughes, R.W., 1997, Ruby and sapphire: RWH Publishing, Colorado, 511 pp.
  • Petersen, O.V., and Secher, K., 1993, The minerals of Greenland: Mineralogical Record, v. 24, n. 2, 88 pp.
  • Rohtert, W.R., and Ritchie, M.R., 2006, Three parageneses of ruby and pink sapphire discovered at Fiskenaesset, Greenland: Gems and Gemology, v. 42, n. 3, p. 149-150.
  • Thirangoon, K., 2009, Ruby and pink sapphire from Aappaluttoq, Greenland. Status of on-going research. GIA Laboratory, Bangkok.
  • Weston, B.C.P, 2009, 2008 Report on field activities for the Fiskenaesset ruby project, Greenland. 43-101 report, True North Gems, Inc.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Gemstone_industry_in_Greenland&oldid=420703253"