Jungle-Gems.com September Newsletter
JGems Newsletter September 2002
Hello again from Brasil. This month’s newsletter of gem-trade related news, gossip, and rumors is brought to you from Ariquemes, Rondonia.
Headline of the Month: Amazon Opal is back !
We are very happy to inform our readers that we have been able to maintain a constant production of our exclusive Amazon Opal. We expect production to continue throughout the coming rainy season as well, allowing us to provide a steady supply year round. The opal is coming out of the mine in all colors, ranging from a clear white, to lite-yellow, to solid yellow, to lite-orange, to med-orange, to top orange. Our very best color, “top red amazon opal”, still remains elusive. We expect the red opal will come out in it’s own good time, along with the other production. These last 3 months of constant effort in the jungle has finally been rewarded with many fine kilograms of fine gem-grade opal. You will be able to see Amazon Opal at the January “Quartzite Gem & Mineral Show”, at Desert Gardens. We may also locate in Tucson, but as yet are undecided and have no firm location. We will inform our readers where we can be found when we leave the jungle for the marketplace. Of course, anyone out there who is really anxious to see our production is welcome to visit us here in the Amazon Jungle. Just come up the Amazon River to the city of Manaus (maybe 1500 miles up-river), then keep going and take the Rio Madeira to the southwest another 800 miles or so until you are near Bolivia. Ask around for the Rio Machadao… take that river to the Rio Machadinho all the way to Tabajara. You are then a short 40 miles through the jungle to our minesite. We think it is funny how some people think Quartzite Arizona is in the middle of nowhere!
Featured News: Amazon Amber
Here in our Brasilian office, we are continuing to see a great reception for our newly discovered Amazon Amber. The material has already found its way to Austria, America, and Australia… and we still don’t know what to call the insects inside! My partner Jeff Gale, at our Teofilo Otoni / Minas Gerais office, has been doing a fine job in showing and promoting the material here in Brasil to the few foreign buyers that we have met with so far.
We plan to bring Amazon Amber to market at the Quartzite Gem & Mineral Show in January. We are continuing to work with the material, sawing and shaping attractive forms. However, nobody we can find in Brasil has any experience working in Amber so we have to go slow and steady to get the results we seek while we all learn together. Some of our better finds within our rough material include: an almost 2”-long cicada, and a spider the size of a dime with a water bubble sitting right beside it. Many pieces have more than 20 insects within a piece the size of a silver dollar. Be sure to stop in and see our Amazon Amber collection if you make it to the Quartzite Show this year. We may also make a last minute appearance at the Tucson Show as well. Stay tuned for more news regarding our Amazon Amber debut.
At our office in Teofilo Otoni, Minas Gerais, we continue to see many fine gemstones and mineral specimens. Our custom procurement service is at your disposal. Just let us know what goods you would like to obtain direct from Brasil. Our procurement fee is a minimal 10% above the local prices. You can’t get Brasilian gemstones any cheaper, either faceted or rough, without coming here yourself. Check out the photos below of some of the goods we have seen lately… amethyst, citrine, aquamarine, andalucite, emerald, fancy quartz, tourmaline, imperial topaz, dendrite and much more!
Click Pictures To Enlarge
Click Pictures To Enlarge
Regards from Brasil / Kirk “Tomas” Bond and Jeff Gale
