gems, beryl, emerald, Afghanistan, Laghman

Emeralds from Laghman, Afghanistan. For many years, Afghanistan has supplied modest amounts of high-quality emeralds from mines in the Panjshir Valley (see, e.g., G. Bowersox et al., “Emeralds of the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan,” Spring 1991 Gems & Gemology, pp. 26–39). Recently, emeralds have also been found to the southeast in Laghman Province, which is famous for gem-bearing pegmatite deposits of tourmaline, spodumene, aquamarine, and morganite. According to Dudley Blauwet (Dudley Blauwet Gems, Louisville, Colorado), there are two emerald localities—Lamonda and Korgun. At Lamonda, large (up to 3 × 4 cm) semitransparent crystals are produced, and associated minerals on some specimens suggest that these emeralds formed in a granitic pegmatite, rather than in hydrothermal veins as in the Panjshir Valley. At Korgun, about 4–5 kg of smaller crystals were reportedly produced last summer, some of which are gemmy and have saturated color. Syed Iftikhar Hussain (Syed Trading Co., Peshawar, Pakistan) had about 25 faceted emeralds from Laghman, with the largest weighing 1.39 ct. Most of the stones were lightly included and their green color showed moderate saturation.