Vietnam

More than 15 years ago, we started to work intensively in the field of precious stones in northern Vietnam. We have visited almost all the open producing sites here, however, the area we liked the most was Luc Yen (Yen The) in Yen Bai province north of Hanoi. This area was only recently discovered around 1985. At first there was a huge euphoria here, and Thai investors in particular just flocked here. After the initial enthusiasm came a severe sobering up, investors pulled back and only poor farmers remained, who occasionally earn a living by collecting and searching for precious stones. The Luc Yen area is set amongst rice paddies, from which the sharp, high marble rocks in whose hollows the gemstones are found jut into the sky. The whole area is set in the middle of a rainforest with lots of wild endemic orchids, colourful spiders, golden bunches of bananas, poisonous snakes and also the ubiquitous malaria, rabies from bats living in cavities in the rocks and with a lot of luck, beautiful gemstones.