In July 2019, military forces of the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) wrested control of Badakhshãn Province from the western-backed central government of Afghanistan. A rugged mountain province in northeast Afghanistan, sparsely populated Badakhshãn has relatively little economic significance—except for the remote upper Kokcha Valley, where Sar-e-Sang (or Sar-i-Sang) is the world’s premier source of lapis lazuli.
Just a few years earlier, the Afghan government had launched a program to develop the Sar-e-Sang lapis lazuli resource in a manner that would benefit the nation. But that hope is gone, at least for now, and the fall of Badakhshãn is having many ramifications: The Afghan government has lost a potential source of income; all newly mined lapis lazuli is being smuggled into Pakistan, and the Taliban is reaping millions of dollars per year in profit.
LONG AND INVOLVED HISTORY
Afghanistan has long been synonymous with lapis lazuli. This central-Asian nation has produced roughly 95 percent of all the lapis ever mined throughout history. The only other commercially significant supplies come from Russia, Chile, and the United States, but lapis from these sources does not match the Afghan material in color intensity, pyrite glitter, and overall visual appeal.
The saga of Afghan lapis reads like an epic of historical fiction that James Michener might have written. It was the first gemstone ever to be systematically mined and one of the most prized commodities carried by the ancient Silk Road caravans that once culturally and economically linked Asia, Africa, and Europe. As a gemstone, pigment, and inlay material, Afghan lapis has played major roles in Egyptian, Islamic, and European art.
For the last 40 years, the tale of Afghan lapis has been a particularly volatile mix of warlords, military intervention, government corruption, international politics, and rampant smuggling. This complex drama is being played out beneath the snowy peaks of the Hindu Kush range at what may be the most remote and forbidding gemstone locality on Earth.
Lapis lazuli is a metamorphic rock of widely variable composition that consists mainly of lazurite (basic sodium calcium aluminum sulfate chlorosilicate). Its other mineral components include calcite (calcium carbonate), pyrite (iron disulfide), sodalite (sodium aluminum chlorosilicate), augite (calcium iron magnesium silicate), and nosean (hydrous sodium sulfate aluminosilicate).
Lazurite, which imparts lapis lazuli’s striking deep-blue color, makes up 20 to 40 percent of lapis, with the higher percentages creating the most intensely colored and valuable stones. Lazurite crystallizes in the isometric system, but usually occurs in granular, massive, or compact forms, and only rarely as crystals. Brittle and showing an uneven fracture, a low specific gravity of 2.42.5, and a Mohs hardness of 5.0-5.5, lazurite is opaque with an azure-blue color and a dull-to-greasy luster.
Lazurite forms through contact metamorphism of silica-poor, marine limestone that contains sulfur and chlorine. The original basement rock at Sar-e-Sang was marine limestone, a sedimentary rock that consists primarily of calcite. The uplifting of the Hindu Kush massif some 30 million years ago provided the heat and pressure necessary for intense contact metamorphism to recrystallize parts of this limestone into marble.
Within a 1,200-foot-thick, mica-rich stratum of white marble, varying concentrations of lazurite occur in lens-shaped, horizontally oriented bodies 3 to 6 feet thick, 60 feet wide, and several hundred feet long. Along with calcite and lazurite, these lenses also contain the silicate minerals forsterite, enstatite, phlogopite, and diopside, and the aluminosilicate minerals augite and muscovite. Also present are sodalite, haüyne, nosean, and afghanite, all aluminosilicates with complex chlorine sulfur chemistries similar to that of lazurite. Varying grades of lapis lazuli, along with occasional lazurite crystals, are concentrated near the core of the lenses.
Despite its inaccessibility, Sar-e-Sang had a significant historical and geographical advantage—its relative proximity to a major Silk Road caravan route that linked the region to both China and the Middle East. Along with gold, spices, and silk, lapis lazuli from Sar-e-Sang was among the most valuable of all Silk Road trade commodities.
AFGAN LAPIS CAPTURES ATTENTION IN ANCIENT TIMES
Sporadic mining at Sar-e-Sang began in prehistory, and continuous, systematic mining was underway by 4000 B.C. Afghan lapis was widely traded, first to the Middle East and Egypt, and later to China and Europe where it was fashioned into jewelry and decorative items, and ground into pigments. The Egyptians were especially enamored of Afghan lapis, grinding it into eye-shadow powder and cutting it into inlay-mosaic pieces for ceremonial uses, most notably the prominent, royal-blue striping in the 3,300-year-old funeral mask of the ruler Tutankhamen (or Tutankhamum).
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
Filling an Empty Space and Enhancing a Cabochon
I often look for a special feature within a slab when choosing the shape to cut into a cab.
Pterodactyls No Longer Birds of a Feather?
For a couple of decades now, feathered dinosaurs have been all the rage.
The Saga of COLORADO GOLD - 53 Million Troy Ounces and Counting
Colorado has been mining gold even before the region became a territory and is still mining it today.
SPECTACULAR NATIVE SILVER - Rarer Than Gold in Specimen Form
When it comes to naturally occurring precious metal specimens on Earth, finding native silver is not as easy as finding native gold.
PEARL OF THE PACIFIC - San Diego's Pacific Rim Park
Did you know, the Pearl of the Pacific was created in 1998 as a symbol of friendship and unity between the United States, Mexico, China and Russia?
POPULAR PSEUDOMORPHS - More Common Varieties Enhance Any Collection
In part one of this two-part series, which appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rock & Gem, we explained pseudomorphs as minerals whose normal form has changed, so they may look like the original but are now another mineral.
New Era Gems - CARVING A PATH AND CREATING A LEGACY
Think back to your 20th birthday; what were you doing? How did you celebrate?
DIAMONDS - A Luxury Gem Steeped in Fact & Fable
The diamond is one fabled gemstone! For example, google “Hope Diamond” to see all the legends associated with just this one stone said to bring misfortune to its owners.
Cleaning Without Chemicals
Do you have specimens like desert roses, quartz crystal clusters, or geode halves that sat for eons in the open before being collected?
Black Ilmenite and “Titanium White”
The bright-white color that we see in everything from highway lines, donut icing, and tooth-paste to paint, paper, plastics, and ceramics comes mostly from titanium dioxide, the world’s most widely used pigment.
