Sri Lanka Ratnapura Mining Sapphire Moonstone Gemstones Ruby Jewellery Gems


The of the town depends on the gem trade. Gem pits are a common site in the surrounding area. Most of the large-scale gem businessmen of Sri Lanka operate from Ratnapura. There are considerable numbers of foreign gem traders in town too. Among the foreign traders, Thai (Thailand) traders are in the majority. Every day, large number of traders from suburbs and other towns gather in the town centre to sell or buy gemstones. Large-scale merchants collect gemstones from locals and sell them in the international market. Some traders go out of the city to buy gems. This includes neighboring towns like Kalawana, Bogawantalawa, and Ela-era. After the discovery of world-class alluvial sapphire deposits in the valley of Ilakaka in Madagascar, many Ratnapura merchants travel out of the country to Madagascar to buy gems.


Size: 5433px × 3613px
Photo credit: © Peter Horree / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: ., alluvial, area., bogawantalawa, businessmen, buy, centre, city, collect, common, considerable, country, day, depends, deposits, discovery, ela-era., foreign, gather, gem, gems, gems., gemstones, gemstones., ilakaka, includes, international, jewellery, kalawana, lanka, large, large-scale, locals, madagascar, majority., market., merchants, mining, moonstone, neighboring, number, numbers, operate, pits, ratnapura, ratnapura., ruby, sapphire, sell, site, sri, suburbs, surrounding, thai, town, towns, trade., traders, travel, valley, world-class