Indonesian Gemstones Industry

Ilustration image From http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Blue-Chalcedony-Rough_11828860.html

Development of Gemstones and Gemstones Industry in Indonesia

Geologically, the formation of Indonesia began since more than 410 million years ago, and is continuously undergoing tectonic and volcanic activities that is creating rich mineral source in gemstone formulation. This natural geological process has made Indonesia potential for its gemstones asset.

Gemstones are the substances from various kinds of minerals, organic substances under earth surface. Gemstone is also called precious or semi-precious stone, or jewel as a piece of attractive mineral, it is cut, polished and engraved into different shapes, and used to make jewelry or other adornments.

However certain rocks, such as lapis-lazuli, and organic materials, such as amber are not minerals, but are still used for jewelry, and are therefore often considered being gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstones. Natural organic substances such as amber, pearl, coral, ivory, and some others are included as gemstones.

Even semi precious stones are rich in colors and variation, they have less economic value if compared with the precious stones, however, they have important strategic value for the people’s economy.

Since the production sites are mostly found in less developed area, the abundance of resources could give great revenue to the village people. This potency can be explored by the government by developing the mines, processing and marketing the gemstone products. It is believed that the program would be able to decrease poverty and also to create employment opportunities for the poor.

Provinces where attractive types of gemstones were found in last few years are:

Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (green aventurine, light green nephrite jade and fluorite)

Bengkulu ( good quality amber)

South Sumatera ( transparent agatized wood, mushroom chalcedony, crystal blue agate)

Banten (chrysoprase, jasper, geode, opal and fossilized wood)

West Java (fire jasper, calligraphic jasper, silicified coral, steel silicified)

Central Java (stalactite chalcedony, multi-color jasper, heliotrope)

East Java ( mesolite, flower chalcedony, multi-color jasper)

South Kalimantan (amethyst, various quartz, chalcedony and diamond)

East Nusa Tenggara ( various colored agate, opal )

Maluku ( garnet )

North Maluku (chrysocolla, blue-green quartz , multi-color chalcedony)

Central Sulawesi (serpentine, green soap stone )

Southeast Sulawesi ( white and light green opal, chrysocolla )

Others

More new explorations are expected in the future since many of the provinces are not yet explored, for instance Papua and Central Sulawesi. According to some recent explorations in Sukabumi, West Java has been found blue opal; some miners found purple chalcedony gemstone in Talaud archipelago; people in Banten newly found agate and geode gemstone. Among the provinces of Indonesia, there are 5 biggest areas producing such beautiful gemstones.

From: http://www.indogemstone.net/