HISTORY OF CHANTHABURI – PART 2

In the 1950’s with the closure of the Mogok mines by the Burmese government, Chanthaburi’s stature grew even greater as massive supply shortages developed. The mines within Thailand and around the city of Chanthaburi quickly stepped up to meet market demand, with control over a large portion of production and increasingly developed heat treatment techniques, Chanthaburi increased its standing in the international gem industry

In the late 1960’s, Chanthaburi began to look outward for sources of gemstones. The first major source on which Chanthaburi set its sights were the Sapphire mines of Australia. Australian blue sapphires are darker in color than their Asian counterparts; however, due to new heat treatment techniques developed in the furnaces of the burners in Chanthaburi, who were able to “burn out” the rutile silk in the stones, the Thais were able to produce an attractive blue sapphire.

In the 1970’s, Chanthaburi made an even bigger name for itself with the heat treatment of the Sri Lankan geuda sapphire. Geuda sapphires, which due to their high rutile silk content are a milky, diesel color had previously had no place in the marketplace. However, once the Chanthaburi burners began to experiment, they developed a heating technique to turn these worthless stones into gem quality material. This development left the world in wonder as dealers tried to determine all this new blue sapphire material was coming from.