Blue Sapphires in Kanchanaburi ครูจันทนา คำอนุกูล

Kanchanaburi Sapphires once mined in the small province of Kanchanaburi just to the west of Bangkok. Thailand are famous throughout the jewelry world.

Fine quality deep blue Kanchanaburi sapphires have been used in some of the best precious jewelry pieces by top jewelry designers. Kanchanaburi blue sapphire pendants, diamond and sapphire rings and sapphire and diamond earrings are truly the most precious of jewelry.

Kanchanaburi: The Bo Ploy area 30km north of this very touristy city, known for its bridge over the river Kwae, where the company SAP is still mining a large domain and is converting the areas mined already into a golf course and lake resort.

Bo Ploy is now just a shadow of war it was in the past. The area was discovered in 1918, and a small gem rush occurred, but soon the deposit was thought to be depleted. Its rediscovery in 1987 turned the area into a major mining center. After few years of strong activity, the production has decreased.

Currently the loss of mining activity has made difficult to find a room to sleep or even a place to eat in Bo Ploy, which is difficult to imagine in Thailand. Besides blue sapphire, large quantities of black spinal known locally as “nin” are mined and most of the time sold on many Thai markets as “onyx”.

Nowadays the mines are almost all redundant but sapphires are still traded in the gem markets of Bangkok and Chantaburi. Some of these gemstones are Australian sapphires, Ceylon sapphires or Burmese sapphires but it is the Kanchanaburi sapphires that often fetch the highest prices.