The sapphire mines of Madagascar


	The sapphire mines of Madagascar
JohnWaterman
10-1-2008 12:53 PM
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JohnWaterman says:
The Big Picture from The Boston Globe
2 Comments |
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10-1-2008 1:05 PM
spirithiker
Another piece of pristine earth destroyed by man for profit.

To feed vanity with shiny objects instead of feeding the poor with food and hope has sadly become man’s legacy.
10-1-2008 3:10 PM
tanyamm
You're right spirithiker. The only people going to get anything from there are the rich mine owners.
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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/c6cc6cd4-7584-4b14-ba6d-f13eeccfc243/CCAD93C6-CFDC-4EF8-9FDC-C027754A8C36/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html" href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.boston.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.boston.com/img/48079377-2434-4B6C-8BC7-19D567748F0B" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html">Sapphires of various colors are shown, lined up at a local precious stone business in the Ilakaka, Madagascar</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html">The tiny village of Ilakaka, Madagascar had barely 40 residents before 1998. Then, a large deposit of sapphires was discovered along a nearby riverbed, and caught the eye of some Thai businessmen in the gem trade. Word got out, and Ilakaka swelled to tens of thousands of residents - the center of a sapphire boom, today the source of nearly 50% of all the sapphires in the world. Illegal miners mixed with large-scale operations, all operating under little or no regulation, in a wild-west atmosphere of potential fortunes, lawlesness, violence and hardship. In the years since, the easily-mined sapphire fields have been picked clean, and the remaining miners often work in deep holes, climbing far underground. Mining is also a family effort</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.boston.com/img/AB376954-182A-48C3-BC3D-A44861C5C813" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sapphire_mines_of_madagasc.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.boston.com/img/4F6AEBA7-3A47-49D8-B12E-C0D506EE85BA" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; 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