Over the years my passion for jewellery and adventure has taken me down some dark caverns, into murky waters with old shipwrecks and along high mountain ranges, however nothing to date has beaten the adventure of mining emeralds in the jungle of Zambia.

Emeralds on their own or set in jewellery have to be one of the worlds most beautiful stones

Here you see a very typical open cast emerald mine situated very deep in the Zambian Jungle. Mining has been going for many years here. This mine employs over fifty locals and is at a depth of approximately fifteen meters in this picture, all of which has been dug out by hand.

The sheer size of this emerald crystal is enough to put a smile on anybody's face.

This emerald weighed about fifty five kilograms and was proudly named the green Rhino. Found in mid June 1999, this is a very rare photograph of how large an emerald crystal can grow in size. Unfortunately it was not of high jewellery quality.

A basic method of cleaning and sorting emeralds. As you can see from the background, conditions are basic, very basic.

Crude but excellent photo of emeralds in their rough form having been cleaned and drying in the mid-afternoon sun.

To think that soon after being mined they will be set in jewellery all around the world.

Still smiling as the product of a real emerald mining adventure comes true. This picture was taken in the sorting room, which we built for grading rough emeralds prior to selling.

This has to be a very rare photo. It is possibly one of the largest emerald formations in the world weighing in over one hundred and ten kilograms and very appropriately named by the locals as the green Elephant. This rough emerald was spectacular, the likes potentially never seen before this size.

It was a good indication to us that we were getting close to the jewellery quality emerald stones.

The Jungle mining camp:

Front: Sorting room
Rear right: Kitchen
Rear left: Store room
Caravan: Home sweet home

Not the most modern of kitchens or the latest in appliances, but then there was no electricity whatsoever, no telephone or mobile reception and no running water.

Just the sort of place that would make you think being back in a jewellery wokshop is not such a bad idea.

This has to be the best stretch of the one road linking the mine to to civilization. Approximately sixty kilometers and minimally a two and a half hour drive, depending on tyre changes. Being the only road in and out of the mine, brought plenty of hazards.

The jungle sun sets were always a welcoming sign as they signified the end of another hard day on the emerald mine.