During the 1991 season, a small blasthadexposed a nice-looking vein in one side of an old tunnel. The tunnel had tobewidened to accommodate the mine‘s underground machinery. By chance,acrewmember, Graham Sutton, chose to blast the right side of thetunnel, insteadof the left; thus exposing the vein.In 1992, the new vein was mapped, studiedand finally chosen as a goodtarget for exploration. Unfortunately, afterfinding very little during thepreviou..

　　Each night, we religiously packedany exposed pocket and buried it. Eachmorning, we unburied the pocket and continued our work. My friend ChuckBorland arrived from Montana andoffered another set of welcome hands.　　Chuck customarily does most of thephotography and washes some of thepieces for checking fits and quality. Timis the prime person for excavating thepockets. I usually keep track of specimens,wrap, and log material. Georgeruns the wa..

7,5 cm quartz with amazonite. J. Starrspecimen. J. Budd photo.　　In one section we began findingsome exceptional smokies that were upto 12 cm in length and some beautiful 2to 5 cm amazonites and small amazonitegroups. Very few of the crystals were inattached clusters, which was disappointing,but not surprising.　　At this point, we avoided collectingthe floor plates. If they were intact, wewould need to chisel under them andpop them up to remove..

Specimen known as the “Behemoth” stillin situ. Ch. Borland photo.　　A few crystals remained attached tothe side.　　– That’s a good sign – Tim pointedthem out.　　But the quality did not look thatgreat. They were coated with oxides andaragonite drippings, possibly silicates,which would be even worse. They werealso stubby and the amazonite was shattered.　　The cavity mouth now open, Timstarted removing some of the b..

　　In our 30 years of mining, 2011 wasoff to the worst start of any season. Weknew if we did not find a great pocket, itcould be the end of our search for amazonitewith smoky quartz.Freshly collected specimen. J. Dorris photo.　　Monday morning, 13 June, thingswere going badly. We could not start theJohn Deer 992 excavator. We triedstarter fluid, new fuel filters, new air filters,pumped out fuel to drain the air,pumped out water, charged batteri..

　　The upper sector is characterizedby a growth zone only in the direction ofthe c axis, with large pedion faces,resulting in a strongly polychrome appearance looking through the prismfaces. In a few centimeters it is possibleto observe tens of thin and sharp colorsectors, with different varieties of green,yellow, pink, and red color, sharply overgrownby a thick sector in which red tovivid red color is dominant.27 cm in length (sic!), this is th..

Ajoined crystals of liddicoatite with strong color zonation, 5.5 cm in length. A. Watzl Jr. specimen and photo.　　By September 2012 the number ofminers had dropped to about 50 andthereafter gradually declined to the 25-30 miners who currently work themine (May 2013). Further productionfrom this area will be hampered byground water inflow into the pits whichmakes the use of primitive mining methodsimpractical.Multi-color liddicoatite crystal, wei..

Miners working in narrow tunnels following pegmatite collecting fragments of gemmy rubelites. M. Lorenzoni photo.　　However in June 2012, a group ofseven local miners directed by a wellknown and experienced miner namedPieró started working a pit. The prospect followed traces of polychrome tourmalinewhich formed a thin vein dipping ata high angle into the kaolinized pegmatite.Big, gemmy multicolor liddicoatite crystal from the find, weight..

Workings in Estatoby. J. Gajowniczek photo.　　Some of the pegmatites in the areaare very rich in gem crystals what hasresulted in extensive prospecting andmining. The most famous mineralsoccurring in them are certainly tourmalinesforming multi-colored, gemmy, lustrousand well-terminated crystals. Theother varieties of colored tourmalinessuch as red, green, pink, blue, yellow andviolet are also well known from the area.　　Additional gemstones mi..

　　Sahatany Valley is one of the mostfamous and important pegmatite fieldsand sources of gemstones and specimens,especially for tourmalines, inMadagascar and the whole of Africa forthat matter. Important diggings formulticolored and red tourmaline gemstonesand specimens have been documentedsince the beginning of the20th century. Decades of mining, whichremoved most of the easily accessibleparts of the pegmatites, have left modernday miners only ..