Starter Kit. Idea 238 of 500. Cluster 12
A Ratnapura mine visit sold as a day, with a licensed dealer and a laboratory report on anything you buy
The mechanism, from the book
The sapphire is mined here and cut here, and its value is certified in Basel and turned into money in Geneva. Every step of that chain can be built at home, and the first one is the piece of paper.
The first step
Agree with a licensed dealer in Ratnapura that 4 visitors could spend a day at a working pit and his office, with any stone they buy sent for a laboratory report. Put his fee and the rules in writing. Offer the day to 3 hotels and tour operators and record the first booking. The proof is a signed agreement and a paying guest.
- Who pays first
- A visitor who wants to see where sapphires come from and buy one without the fear of being cheated that keeps most of them away.
- What leaves today
- Tourists pass Ratnapura and buy stones in fear or not at all, so the trust a certified mine visit would create never exists.
Ask first
- National Gem and Jewellery Authority. Ask how to confirm a dealer is licensed before sending visitors to him.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a mine day for visitors must be run by a registered operator.
Check before you spend
Whether visitors may enter a working pit, what insurance covers them, and how any stone bought gets its laboratory report before payment.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a visitor pay for a day at a working pit?
- How many visitors can the pit take safely at once?
- What does a laboratory report cost on a small stone?
A comparison from the book
Thailand. Chapter Seventeen
"Thailand built its gem trade on trust, with too few stones of its own."
The visitor is buying trust as much as the stone, so the report comes first.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.