Precious and Semiprecious Stones

Abstract

A number of gemstone deposits of different kinds are present mainly in the northeastern parts of the Afghanistan underlain by Proterozoic and Archean rocks. These include emerald deposits of the Panjsher Valley (Snee and others, 2005), ruby, sapphire and spinel occurrences in the Jegdalek area (Orlov and others, 1974) and Balal (Ab-i-Panja) (Bowersox and Chamberlin, 1995), and lapis lazuli occurrences at Sary-Sang on the Kokoschka River in Badakhshan Province (Efinov and Suderkin, 1967). In addition, gemstones are present in many of the numerous pegmatites deposits and include tourmaline, kunzite, garnet and ruby (Orris and Bliss, 2002). Occurrences of peridot are also known along the Afghanistan-Pakistan boarder (Blauwet and others, 1997). Many areas contain sufficient amounts of colored stones and gemstones to commercially support local industries. Much of the material would be exported.