Ruby

Ruby: King of precious stones

What is Ruby?

Rubies are one of the world’s best-known gemstones and are synonymous with the colour red. They have been prized as precious stones throughout history and, even today, as new, previously unknown, deposits are being discovered, they retain their allure as a top tier gemstone. Rubies are a variety of the mineral corundum, as are sapphires. In its purest form, corundum is colourless. Colour is caused by trace amounts of elements becoming a part of the mineral’s structure. In the case of ruby, this element would be chromium. They can range in colours from a deep, blackish red to an orange or pink tinted red. Of these colours, a pigeon’s blood ruby is considered the most beautiful and valuable, being of a highly saturated colour and a natural red fluorescence. These rubies are extremely rare.

Ruby Jewellery

As with any gemstone, there are certain metals that better suit the deep red hue of these stones. Yellow gold is often the most commonly favoured metal for rubies, as pure yellow gold accentuates the rich, blood-red of a ruby. However, rose gold can also be a great option, as the pinkish tint of the rose gold complements the red of the ruby. Rose gold can also be a less expensive alternative to pure gold, as it is an alloy. While white metals can be used with rubies, this will often be in tandem with diamonds, where the metal choice is more a matter of bringing out the brilliance of the diamonds.

Ruby hardness

As has been previously mentioned, rubies are a variety of the mineral corundum, which is found all over the world and has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. This makes the mineral second only to diamond in terms of hardness on the list of naturally occurring minerals on earth, however, as the scale is a qualitative ordinal scale, it is important to bear in mind that this does not indicate relative hardness, only that one is harder than the other. Diamonds, at 10, are twice as hard as corundum, at 9.

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Ruby Cuts

Rubies have a hexagonal crystalline structure from their formation, which means they can easily be cut into a variety of shapes. However, there are certainly more popular cuts. The most popular is round-brilliant, which is often the most popular cut for any gemstone. Oval shapes are also popular, as they have a larger surface area, making them appear larger. Cushion and square cut rubies are also great alternatives that allow for a more unique ring.

Ruby Value

Rubies are considered one of the most valuable gemstones in the world and often command higher prices per carat than any other coloured gemstone apart from diamonds. Of course, within this spectrum there is a great deal of variation in price. For example, a 10.5 carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby sold at auction (Christie’s) in 2016 was sold for HK$78,940,000 (£7.6m). Of course, not all rubies will set you back this much. The cost of the ruby will depend on several factors: colour, clarity, cut, and carat.

How to Care for Ruby

As previously mentioned, rubies rank quite highly on Mohs scale of hardness and, therefore, are unlikely to suffer from daily wear and tear. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other elements of ruby jewellery that will need an occasional check. This will primarily be the claw setting, if you have one, as there is a risk they may come loose, resulting in the risk that the gemstone might fall out of its setting. This can be the result of multiple factors, such as the wear ruby, being so naturally hard, can have on the metal. Alternatively, rings or bracelets, which come into contact with many surfaces, might have loose settings from bumping into something.

Luckily, rubies are easy to clean and you by no means need any special equipment to do so. All you need is a bowl, warm water, gentle soap, and a soft bristled toothbrush or cloth. Dilute the soap in warm water and use the brush or cloth to gently clean the ruby. Alternatively, you may choose to have your jewellery polished and cleaned by a jeweller.

How your jewellery is stored will also affect your ruby. It’s therefore advisable to store your ruby jewellery in an individual fabric pouch or compartment, to ensure that it does not rub against any other jewellery. While ruby is a hard gemstone, it might be scratched by a diamond or cause damage to another piece of jewellery.

Ruby Origin

While the exact details of rubies’ initial discovery are not known, it has been used in jewellery for millennia, with pieces dating back to Ancient Greece and Rome. In fact, the name of the gemstone comes from the Latin word ruber, meaning red.

Where is Ruby Found?

Rubies are found in locations such as Africa, South Asia, North Europe, and North America. In Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi are prolific sources of rubies. Wimza, in Tanzania, was a significant find of high-quality ruby crystals, which was brought to the world’s attention in the 2000s, and the Montepuez region of Mozambique has seen large-scale foreign investment. One of the most famous sources of rubies is Burma, which produces the famed pigeon’s blood rubies. Most of these rubies come from districts surrounding Mogok and Mong Hsu, which are regions located in the north and north-east of Burma. These mines produce about 90% of all pigeon blood rubies.

Ruby Mining

Rubies can be mined in a few different ways, often similar to how sapphires are mined, as the two gemstones are formed of the same mineral: corundum. Rubies are mined from alluvial deposits, which are the result of a long process of erosion. During this process, rock fragments move into streams where they are fractured, releasing any gems they might contain. Then, these gemstones will settle into river beds and, over time, become concentrated at a particular bend in the river. Alluvial mines are all fairly similar and will vary from mine to mine predominantly in what level of mechanisation they have.

While alluvial deposits are known as secondary deposits, some rubies are found in solid host rock, known as primary deposits. In order to mine these, miners will have to build tunnels and drifts directly into the rock.

Ethical Rubies

The value of rubies can mean there is a lot of incentive to mine and sell these gemstones. Therefore, there might be said to be an even greater risk that they are affected by human rights, working conditions, money laundering, corruption, and funding conflict issues than other gemstones, though it is always a risk.

There are currently no independently audited vendors for ethically sourced rubies, although there are suppliers and jewellers who are very transparent about their process and mining methods such as Moyo Gems, an ethical gemstone collaboration from the Tanga region in North-East Tanzania. As well as rubies, Moyo Gems mines sapphires, tourmaline, garnets, citrines, and amethysts, providing all from mine to market (a concept not unlike from farm to table). Moyo Gems seeks to empower women miners in an industry that shows a lot of discrimination. Many of the issues are described in detail in the report: Women in artisanal and small scale mining: Challenges and opportunities for great participation by IGF.

Ruby Meaning

Rubies are synonymous with the colour red, a colour to which has been ascribed many emotions and associations: rage, passion, jealousy, and love. It’s often associated with objects of desire or status symbols such as red roses being symbolic of love or red sports cars. These associations are by no means new, as red and rubies have long been believed to hold a certain power, perhaps due to the blood-like colour of the stone, alluding to the life-giving nature and vitality of the colour.

In Ancient Greece and Rome, healing and talismanic properties were attributed to rubies. They were even described by Pliny in his famed Natural History. In ancient Hindu culture, it was believed that one would be reborn as an emperor if they offered rubies to the god Krishna. In India, rubies were thought to possess castes, not unlike people; those of a deeper colour were of the highest cast. A Brahmin ruby was believed to grant perfect safety. It was also believed in India that rubies enabled peace and harmony with their neighbours, contrary to the rage red is associated with. This theme of talismanic properties recurred in Burma, where it was believed rubies granted warriors invincibility, but only if it was inserted into their flesh (please do not try this at home). Rubies are also recurrently mentioned in the bible, often in association with wisdom, safety, and virtue.

Ruby Treatments

There are various treatments that a ruby may undergo in order to alter the colour, clarity, or durability of the gemstone. This might include dyeing, in which coloured dyes are put into porous or fractured gems to alter colour. Sometimes, fractures are purposefully created by heating a gem so that it can accommodate the dye. Glass may also be used to fill surface-reaching fractures in order to lessen their visibility. Heat treatments are sometimes used in order to increase the saturation of red or to remove silk (needle-like inclusions).