Greenland Ruby Update: Part III: The King of Ruby Mountain
In this, the third of the three posts, Greg describes the astonishing experience of discovering ruby in Greenland.
~ Marc Choyt, publisher
Part of the allure of Greenland’s majestic mountain scenery is its vast richness and beauty. I cannot begin to describe the sense of sheer exhilaration I felt climbing Ruby mountain above the Greenlandic sea.
Ruby Mountain stretches up to breathtaking snow capped heights and plunges down into the depths of crystal clear waters that are fueled by 50,000-year old glaciers. The fjord sculpts the island. Sea trout, seal and whale swim in playgrounds of refracting azure blue.
We jump off the boat onto the shoreline. Even the beach offers us its riches: Moonstone, Garnet, Ruby, Black Tourmaline are merely a few of the gems we find within the first 10 minutes.
We climb up the mountain, parted by a cascading waterfall.
“Ruby, Ruby!” is shouted across the beach and one of my Inuit friends hands me a piece of stone that is peppered with Ruby crystal.
This is a typical field visit for Inuit ruby lovers.
(Niels Madsen comes upon a set of Caribou antlers during the trip – a sacred animal to the Inuit)
A boat trip to the area, backpacks loaded with food, small hammer and chisel, loupes for examining the crystal formation of discovered gems and pliers to extract them.
This landscape is heaven sent for small-scale mining. Its locations are outstanding, terrain wild and rugged yet warmly inviting. I understand why my Inuit friends are so reverent of creation. It is simply part of them.
The Ethics of Greenlandic Small Scale Miners
The accusation leveled by large-scale miners that local Greenland small-scale miners would be bad for the environment is simply nonsense. Here, the guys actually clean the beach of stray fishing tackle, rope and plastic as a matter of course before leaving.
A ruby from the hand of the Inuit is not only radiant in its natural state but is infused with love, passion and deep reverence for creation. This is what I want to see set into our jewellery and see the joy of the Inuit mirrored in the face of our customers who want the opportunity to own a fair trade ruby from the Inuit.
At the end of our time on Ruby Mountain, we gather around a small fire, eating traditional Inuit delicacy whale meat, to seal our friendships and our desire for fair trade rubies from Greenland.
A ruby from the Inuit is mined responsibly in an environmentally sensitive manner. It will also create jobs, forging a new national economic opportunity, and will become a symbol of nationhood.
