Low cost effectiveness ratio in heat-treating ruby-sapphire caused the spectacular failure of at least three companies: American Gem Corp. (USA), Great Northern Mining Co. (Australia), and a startup Burmese joint venture (Burma). All these ventures were orchestrated by Dr. J.L.Emmett, who provided heat-treatment technology and equipment unable to deliver a marketable and cost-effective product. Hundreds of kilos of undesired gray-bluish Montana sapphires, nearly a ton of pitch-black Australian sapphires and dozens of kilos of Mong-Hsu of unmarketable rubies were produced after heated unsuccessfully.

The bottom line: The record shows that the naive and uninformed private investors of these three companies lost over US$50 million combined in just 4 years!

The training course provides photos, specimens and records from these failed case-study operations making valuable conclusions, lessons to learn, and providing Food-for-Thought to the industry! A new session is added to my ruby-sapphire heat-treatment training course to deal with certain scientists who are projecting their academic qualifications, but not their ability to produce a marketable product.

To view images of various furnaces and equipment used in gem treating click here