巴西祖母绿产业概述

Brazil's emerald industry

上世纪70年代以来,巴西祖母绿源源不断地进入世界宝石市场。巴西祖母绿主要产自米纳斯吉拉斯州、巴伊亚州和戈亚斯州,其中富产宝石著称的米纳斯吉拉斯州的Itabira/Nova Era成矿带,至今仍能保持稳定的祖母绿宝石产量。巴西祖母绿产业在取得巨大成功的同时也正面临着严峻的挑战。日趋严格的环保法规和不断上涨的劳动力成本推高了祖母绿的开采成本;巴西赛雷尔对美元汇率的不断升值影响了巴西祖母绿开采、加工到贸易整个产业;随着开采难度的增加、成本的上升个体手工采矿者逐渐被排挤出了祖母绿采矿业;巴西本土的祖母绿加工业也同样受到来自印度宝石加工业低廉价格的挑战。采矿企业通过提高机械化水平降低采选成本,同时通过加工部分自己开采的祖母绿原石,向产业链下游扩张,提高每吨原矿收益率,进而提高矿山开采服务年限。为保证自身利润水平和竞争优势,巴西祖母绿加工企业主要加工颗粒比较大、品级较好的祖母绿宝石,并在原石供应商和珠宝制造商之间寻找到了利润平衡点。在未来,巴西的祖母绿行业发展将会是令人鼓舞的。

Abtract: Since the 1970s,Brazil has been a consistent source of emerald. Emeralds are mostly produced from the states of Minas Gerais,Bahia and Goias. Now there is still steady production from the Itabira / Nova Era belt in the gem rich state of Minas Gerais. Along with successes there have also been challenges to the Brazilian emerald industry. Increasingly strict environmental regulations and higher labor costs have made production more expensive.Another challenging issue facing the mining,cutting,and trading sectors is the rapid rise of the Brazilian real against the U. S. dollar. The independent miners can't make a living on emerald mining for the mines were becoming too deep and it was difficult to work on the hard rock using hand tools at that depth. The cutters from Brazil are facing the challenge from Indian buyers who can offer a good price. Mining companies use advanced mining and sorting technology to reduce the cost of production,some mining companies cut its own rough emeralds,thus moving up the value chain and recording higher profits per tonne of ore mined. The cutters from Brazil only cut the emeralds of better quality and sizes,and this helps them stay competitive in the global market. Brazilian cutters have found a niche in fine_quality calibrated goods that are enticing manufacturers worldwide. This enables them to hit a profitable price point,and they can also cut larger,good_quality emeralds. The future of the Brazilian emerald industry looks very encouraging.