The Tan Lap Tourmaline Mine, Northern Vietnam

摘要

The tourmaline that I held in my hand looked quite interesting. Guessing from the purplish color and previous analysis of tourmaline from northern Vietnam, I thought that it was possibly liddicoatite. I was sitting on the verandah of the house of my friend, Mr. Chuong in Luc Yen, northern Vietnam. He casually asked me if I would like to visit this new mine. Without hesitation, I accepted his offer and made a plan to meet him at his brother-in-law's house about 3:30 PM. The previous May, I had been invited to visit the newly opened Khai Trong tourmaline mine, located about 20 km west of Luc Yen. Situated in a remote tribal area, the mine was a surreal scene of chaos, with hundreds of people packed into a an area about 50 by 50 meters working a decomposed pegmatite and the alluvial gravels in what had once been a cornfield. Seven year old girls were digging with their bare hands in the alluvial gravels as bewildered 70 year-old Mon tribal ladies looked on in curiosity. Simple farming tools were used, along with shovels as the small pegmatite was quite decomposed and shattered when hit with a spade. The frenzy there had now subsided and I was interested in visiting a new site that held promise and one that had only been worked for seven weeks.