Hobbies And Interests
Community Sifting
Sapphires are still commonly collected by sifting with sieves. In Sri Lanka, workers dig mineral-rich earth, place it into 50-pound sacks and haul it--sometimes for miles--to a stream or river. The earth is then dumped into the water and sifted. Workers keep their findings safe by storing sapphires in their mouths until buyers come and purchase from them. Sifting is done in a similar manner throughout the Third World.
Pleasure Sifting
In the U.S., sifting for gemstones like sapphires is often a vacation activity. Customers pay for a bucket of mineral-rich earth they can pour into (often man-made) running water and are allowed to keep what they find. Workers are on hand to help customers identify what they have found and its worth. There are sometimes even guarantees of finding certain amounts of gemstones. These mines can be found in the old mining communities of the South and West.
Third World Mining
In Sri Lanka, miners also go down poles into wood-supported candlelit mines and use hand tools to extract sapphires from the ground. These tunnels are very wet and, if water is not constantly pumped out of them, unusable. There is no mining during the rainy season. Most days, little of value is found. However, since one-half sapphire equals two weeks pay, every effort is made to examine every rock brought to the surface.
Mining in Australia
While the method of extraction varies according to the depth and location of the deposit and the material surrounding it, sapphire mining is a much more modern process in Australia. A typical extraction method for a shaft mine involves first digging out the ground with a jackhammer to loosen it. A wheelbarrow then takes the material to a large drum at the shaft's bottom. Once full, this bucket is winched up and taken to sapphire processing machinery to be refined.