Almost every gemstone is sold as "mine direct". Very few are. Here is exactly how ours reach you.
Step one: buying at the pit
Sri Lanka's gem bearing gravel is called illam. It sits in old riverbeds, sometimes six metres down, sometimes in the middle of a paddy field. Pit holders work small claims under licence and wash the gravel by hand.
We buy at the pit, in cash, on the day the gravel is washed. That means we see the rough before it has been sorted, salted, or repolished, and it means the money goes to the people doing the digging.
Step two: sorting
Rough is sorted by hand under daylight-balanced light. This is the stage most of the value is decided at. A rough stone that looks unpromising can cut into something remarkable if the cutter reads the colour zone correctly, and a beautiful rough can be ruined by cutting for weight instead of colour.
We sort for colour first, then for what the stone can yield. Weight comes last.
Step three: cutting
Cutting happens in our workshop in Colombo. Sri Lankan cutters have worked corundum for generations and understand how Ceylon material behaves. We cut for colour retention rather than for maximum carat weight, which is why our stones sometimes come out slightly smaller than the rough would allow.
Step four: grading and disclosure
Every stone is graded for carat weight, exact millimetre dimensions, colour, clarity and treatment status. Where a stone has been heat treated we say so. Where it is unheated we say so, and we price it as unheated.
Loose stones above $500 ship with an independent gemmological report from a recognised laboratory. Below that threshold we include our own signed grading card.
Step five: listing and shipping
Stones are photographed individually and listed with their full specifications. Orders ship from Sri Lanka, insured and tracked, usually within two business days.
What we cannot tell you
Origin determination below the country level is genuinely difficult, even for laboratories. We can tell you a stone came from Sri Lanka because we bought the rough there. We cannot honestly tell you which pit it came out of, and we will not pretend otherwise.