A gem dealer's journal — rough

Hey Loungers,

As you may have noticed in our recent interviews, the question of ethics and transparency in the gem trade is a bit of a recurring issue of late.

Today, we are lucky enough to have with us Hayley Henning from the Greenland Ruby A/S and we will be discussing just this: Ethics in the gem mining industry.

Greenland Ruby A/S is the only large scale gem mining company to operate under the European Union laws to my knowledge and perhaps the only ruby mine in the world that can claim to stand on ethical grounds.

Back to Hayley though, she has been working for various of the most iconic mining operations in the last twenty years among which the now known as Tanza One that she helmed for little under a decade!

Without any further delays we give you, Hayley Henning!

Hey Loungers,

Wim Vertriest is the current Supervisor of GIA´s field gemology program in Bangkok, Thailand.

Today, we propose you an interview with Wim in hope to better understand what field gemology is all about and what the average day at Bangkok´s GIA office looks like as well as how and why is a gemological field expedition deployed.

With this in mind, we propose you to fasten your seat belt and to follow us as we interview Wim Vertriest. Wim, the floor is yours!

Hey Loungers,

Today we receive Vincent Pardieu, one of the most famous, if not the most famous field gemologist in activity. Vince has been working for AIGS, then Gübelin and rose to fame through his tenure at GIA as he started the Field Gemology department for the Bangkok chapter of the famous organisation.

Today, while providing independent services at “VP Consulting SPC”, he is affiliated to DANAT, the Bahrain based lab where he is building a reference collection. This endeavour allows him and his teams of cameramen and photographers to travel the world and go from mine to mine and further gemological knowledge worldwide.

Today, we’ll pick his brain about field gemology obviously, but also about his thoughts about the trade, the tendencies and of course about his favourite gems.

Without any further delays, we give you Vincent Pardieu!

Hey Loungers,

Today we will dive into the peculiar and mysterious world of jade with legendary gemologist, and author of the ruby and sapphire Bible: Ruby and Sapphire: A Gemologist’s Guide, Lotus Gemology’s Richard W. Hughes.

With him we will explore his passion for this material and the world that surrounds it. We will try to understand the difference between the various type of jades, what they are used for or what different nations consider jade to be. Whether it is the famous Burmese jade or the sublime and delicate Chinese nephrite sculptures, we hope to learn about them all today.

Without any further delay, we interview one of the only “gweilo” (white foreigner) mainlanders ask to speak about jade: Richard Hughes.

Hey Loungers,

Today we’re shaking up our usual format with a reverse interview of AsiaLounges’ founder, Simon Dussart by none other than gemologist and award-winning photomicrographer Billie Hughes of Lotus Gemology.

We’ll be talking about our brand genesis, what it stands for, and what we believe in.

Hope you like it!