Editor’s Note
This article highlights a critical supply chain disruption impacting China’s emerging emerald industry, using the vivid metaphor of “having no rice to cook” to underscore the severity of the shortage. The following analysis explores the root causes of this bottleneck.
The supply chain has been severed, leaving the nascent ‘Chinese Emerald’ gemstone industry facing a situation of ‘having no rice to cook’.
It was learned during the ‘Yunnan Social Science Experts Wenshan Tour’ in Malipo County, Yunnan Province, that due to falling international tungsten prices and rising mining costs, a large tungsten mine in Malipo County ceased operations in 2015 and has remained shut down since. This halt in tungsten mining has led to a suspension in the supply of raw emerald materials from Malipo. Influenced by the supply shortage and market demand both domestically and internationally, the price of high-quality Chinese emeralds has increased several-fold.
Emeralds are highly popular in the international market and are known as one of the ‘World’s Five Precious Gemstones’ alongside diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and chrysoberyl. Emeralds are produced in Colombia, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and China’s Yunnan Province, among other places.
In 1992, a geological survey team from the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources discovered an emerald deposit in the Dayakou area of Mengdong Township, Malipo County, Wenshan Prefecture. This became the first and only emerald deposit with development prospects within China. Later, the emeralds produced in Malipo were named ‘Chinese Emerald’.
Shi Yongming, President of the Malipo Tianbao Emerald Association, introduced that the emeralds produced in Malipo feature vibrant color, complete crystal forms, and large rough stone sizes, but suffer from poor transparency and numerous cracks. They were previously mostly collected as mineral specimens.
Li Shenghui, Deputy County Chief of Malipo, told reporters that Malipo emeralds are mined alongside local tungsten deposits.
Shi Yongming stated that the halt in tungsten mining has led to a shortage in the supply of raw Malipo emerald materials, with previous stockpiles significantly depleted.
