The world's finest rubies come from Burma, specifically from the mining area known as the Mogok Stone Tract. This region has been famous for centuries for the precious ruby pigeon blood with a characteristic fluorescence. A more recent deposit at Mong Hsu yielded large quantities of ruby, but these gems required heat treatment to achieve true red color.

Ruby production from Burma has declined significantly in recent years and most of the larger rubies entering the market now come from other sources , especially Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.

Mozambique has become particularly important since 2009 when high quality rubies were found in Montepuez, in the northern part of the country, including some star rubies. Gemfield Plc acquired the mining rights in 2011 and launched a major mining project with modern equipment. Gemfields now offers bi-annual rough Mozambique ruby ​​auctions in Singapore.

The best Mozambican rubies may approach high quality Burmese rubies in color, but lack the characteristic fluorescence of Burmese. The reason is that Burmese rubies have a very low iron content, while Mozambican rubies have a higher iron content.

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Un recent GIA study has found that the geological conditions of Mozambican (and Tanzanian) rubies differ from both Burmese and Thai rubies. Burmese rubies are found in marble while Thai rubies are related to basalt. African rubies tend to be found in amphiboles, and their iron content falls between iron-rich Thai rubies and iron-poor Burmese gemstones.

What makes Mozambican Rubies quite special in the gem market is that the mines produce some larger gemstones that do not require heat treatment. The market has seen a significant supply of bright red Mozambique rubies over 2 carats, with a number of high quality gemstones ranging from 5 to 10 carats. By comparison, recent Burmese ruby ​​production has almost exclusively been smaller in size, with the vast majority of gemstones requiring heat treatment.

We should note that only a very small percentage of Mozambican ruby ​​production is clean material with a bright red color. In fact, most of the rough stone found has cracks that reach the surface and must be heated with flux or filled with lead glass to be salable. But fine ruby ​​is so scarce that the relatively small amount of high quality gemstones from Mozambique is already having a major impact on the gemstone market. While Mozambican rubies still underprice the produce of Burma, the prices of African rubies have risen rapidly as the market becomes more familiar with these gems.

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