Moonstone mine in Sri Lanka (11 photos)

Moonstone is a fairly rare semi-precious stone that is famous for its soft blue glow. The price of this stone can easily vary from 1 to 1000 dollars:





It all depends on the characteristics of the stone (degree of shine, shimmer, transparency), processing, its size and place of extraction. The most famous deposits with the most expensive stones are located in Sri Lanka. And I was able to visit one of the mines near the settlement of Meetiyagoda in Sri Lanka. Mityyagoda is a fairly popular place among tourists, but it is located away from the sea and resort towns, so tourists are brought here on organized tours accompanied by guides. I had little interest in this, so I reached Mityagoda on my own on the way to another place.

I got there by tuk-tuk.



At first glance, the mine looks real, but after wandering around the area a little, I noticed a couple of details, which I will discuss below.

The entrance to the mine is hidden under the canopy.





The mine is a typical working that can be seen all over the world in small deposits. The vertical trunk is divided into two halves: one for ascent/descent, the other technical, where hoses for water and ventilation are laid. The walls of the shaft are reinforced with formwork made of logs and ferns. Such walls do not last long in the local climate; the formwork must be replaced every few months.



Dumps of waste washed rock near the mine. As I was told, under the dump there is an old exhausted mine that was simply filled up.



Now let's get back to the details. Only two (!) people work at the mine, and the rock dumps look as if they have not been “updated” for a long time. Searching for stones takes a lot of water: at another mine, where about ten people work, a small swamp appeared near the mine due to constant washing. And here there are dry dumps and only a bath for washing.



This is also noticed by some tourists, as can be seen from their reviews. It doesn't look like the mine is actually working, rather it's just a display museum where only a few baskets of sand can be washed per month. Of course, no one would dig a 20-meter well just to “lure” tourists. This was a real mine in the past, but it is hardly working anymore (perhaps the reserves of stones in it have simply dried up). The moonstone itself. Stones from Sri Lanka are famous throughout the world.



There is a workshop on the territory of the mine. Based on its equipment, it is clear that there cannot be any adequate volumes of processing and fine work here.



Semi-precious stones for sale. To be fair, I would like to note that the employees honestly said that the only local ones here are moon rocks. The remaining stones are brought from other deposits.



Pomegranate.



And this looks like a sapphire.



They insistently offer to buy moonstone here. Just for fun, I decided to bargain for a rough stone with a beautiful shine and from 10,000 local rupees, I reduced the price to 7,000, which is about 23 dollars. I could have bargained further, but I had no intention of buying anything. I’m not an expert in stones; fakes can be everywhere, especially since among the semi-precious stones, moonstone is almost the most often counterfeited.

But I think there is no point in counterfeiting stone in the area of deposits, although caution is never too much. As a result, this mine is more of a local attraction, like most other mines in Mityagoda. Still, the proximity to tourist routes has an effect. If mining is carried out here, it is on a very small scale, but it was still interesting to look at what was once a real mine. Moreover, large operating minesThey live much further in the jungle in another part of the country.