Lapis lazuli
Badakhshan, in the far north-east. The oldest continuously worked gem deposit on earth — this is the ground that supplied Egypt and, later, every Renaissance painter who needed ultramarine.
Origins
The valleys, and the wider map
Panjshir, Nuristan, Kunar and Jegdalek sit within a day of one another across some of the most difficult terrain in Asia. They account for most of what we sell — and we can reach the rest of Afghanistan's producing ground besides.
Map shown for orientation only; not to scale.
Geography
Why this corner of the country
North-east Afghanistan is where two very different geological stories meet. The Panjshir Valley cuts through metamorphic rock that hosts emerald in hydrothermal veins. Immediately east, Nuristan and Kunar sit on one of the world's great pegmatite belts — the same coarse granitic intrusions that produce tourmaline, beryl, spodumene and kunzite.
The practical consequence is that a single sourcing operation, run out of one region, can cover both a world-class emerald deposit and a world-class tourmaline field. Very few origins offer that.
The impractical consequence is the terrain. These are high, narrow valleys with a short working season and roads that close. Working here is a matter of relationships built over years, not of arriving with money.
01 — Panjshir
Panjshir emerald
The valley of the five lions, and the source of the coolest, most crystalline emerald in the trade.
Emerald occurs here in quartz-carbonate veins cutting metamorphic host rock along the length of the valley, worked from a string of small operations at altitude. The colour tends toward a slightly bluish green with high transparency — distinct from the warmer, more saturated Colombian material and from the often darker Zambian goods.
Panjshir's real distinction is what happens at smaller sizes. Where many origins go pale or grey below a carat, Panjshir tends to hold its colour and its brightness, which is why the valley supplies so much of the world's fine small emerald without ever being named on the invoice.
- Species
- Beryl, var. emerald
- Colour
- Cool, slightly bluish green
- Deposit
- Hydrothermal vein, schist-hosted
- Treatment
- None. We do not oil
- Working season
- Late spring to early autumn
02 — Nuristan
Nuristan indicolite
Deep blue tourmaline from the pegmatites of the high east — the material collectors mean when they say Afghan indicolite.
Nuristan's pegmatite bodies are pockets of exceptionally coarse crystallisation, and they yield tourmaline across the full colour range: indicolite blues, verdelite greens, rubellite reds, and bicolour crystals that carry two or three of those in a single piece.
The blues are what the province is known for. They run deeper and inkier than Brazilian or Nigerian material, and in larger sizes they take on a density of colour that is very difficult to source anywhere else. Clean, unzoned stones above ten carats are now genuinely scarce, and the price behaviour of the last decade reflects that.
- Species
- Tourmaline (elbaite)
- Varieties
- Indicolite, verdelite, rubellite, bicolour
- Deposit
- Granitic pegmatite
- Treatment
- None
- Note
- Fine large blues increasingly scarce
03 — Kunar
Kunar lagoon
The luminous blue-green that made Afghan tourmaline collectable on its own terms rather than as an alternative to something else.
Kunar's pegmatite fields continue the same belt as Nuristan, but the material has its own signature: a bright, slightly electric blue-green that the trade has come to call lagoon. In clean stones above five carats it is unmistakable, and it photographs almost exactly as it looks — which is rarer than it sounds.
The province also produces bicolour crystals and, occasionally, chatoyant material capable of a sharp cat's-eye. Those come out in small numbers and are usually spoken for before they are cut.
- Species
- Tourmaline (elbaite)
- Varieties
- Lagoon blue-green, bicolour, cat's-eye
- Deposit
- Granitic pegmatite
- Treatment
- None
- Best sizes
- 5 ct and above
04 — Jegdalek
Jegdalek ruby
Marble-hosted corundum from the hills east of Kabul, worked for centuries and still producing.
Jegdalek sits in a belt of metamorphosed limestone, the same geological setting that produces the rubies of Burma and Vietnam. The material runs from soft pinks through to a full red, and the finest of it stands comparison with any origin. Spinel comes out of the same ground and is routinely mistaken for it by people who should know better.
Ruby is corundum, not beryl — considerably denser than emerald. A ruby and an emerald of identical weight are visibly different sizes, which catches out buyers working from carat figures alone. Our size tool in the Studio shows the difference at true scale.
- Species
- Corundum, var. ruby
- Colour
- Pink through to full red
- Deposit
- Marble-hosted, metamorphic
- Treatment
- None. Unheated
- Specific gravity
- 4.00 — denser than beryl
The wider map
We know the Afghan mines, and we can reach all of them
Emerald, ruby and tourmaline are what we hold in depth. They are not the limit of what the country produces, or of what we can put in front of you.
Kunzite & aquamarine
The same Nuristan and Laghman pegmatites that give the tourmaline. Kunzite in particular comes out of Afghanistan in sizes and clarities that few other origins match.
Spinel, garnet, beryl
Spinel alongside the Jegdalek ruby, garnet across several provinces, and the wider beryl family — aquamarine, morganite and heliodor — from the eastern pegmatite belt.
If you need volume in something outside our core three, tell us. We know who works which ground, and we would rather say plainly whether we can reach it than take an order we cannot fill.
Responsibility
Sourcing in a difficult place, carefully
We are not going to pretend that trading out of Afghanistan is simple, or that the industry's record there is spotless. What we can set out is how we work.
Paid at source, properly
Material is bought directly from the operations that produce it, at a price agreed in the valley rather than dictated from a city. The value stays closer to the people doing the work than it does under the usual broker chain.
Known counterparties
We buy from people we know and have worked with over years. We do not buy anonymous parcels of unknown origin, we screen the parties we deal with against the applicable sanctions lists, and we decline material we cannot account for — which happens more often than you might expect.
Correct export
Goods leave Afghanistan under proper declaration and enter their destination market under that market’s rules. Customs and compliance documentation is issued as standard rather than on request.
Honest description
Origin and clarity are stated as they are, and treatment is a single word: none. Where we are uncertain about something — and origin determination is opinion, not measurement — we tell you that too.
Independent checking
We are happy to be checked. Stones can be sent to a laboratory of your choosing before payment clears, and established trade clients can view on memo.
Long relationships
This trade runs on repeat business. A house that misrepresents a stone gets one sale; a house that describes it accurately gets twenty years. We have chosen the second.
Enquiries
Sourcing from a particular province?
Tell us the origin, colour and size you work with, and we will tell you honestly what we can supply, what is seasonal, and what will take time to find.