This was found on GGGems.com in an article titled ILAKAKA

Ilakaka is located on the road to Tulear, south-west of Madagascar. The discovery of sapphire in1998 transformed the area.

1992

1999


Now sapphire has become a major business.

A group of merchants arrived in the area from Thailand and Sri-Lanka and became experts in “the enhancement of corundum” and changed this place from an empty lot to a thriving community

The cloudy stones of better quality will often be sold as untreated Sri-Lankan sapphires on the international market. They get away with this because of the difficulties in detecting heating treatment in a stone that doesn’t contain other inclusions but instead has only a haze of tiny titanium inclusions which are reabsorbed after heating.
–True untreated Sri-Lankan sapphires are rare.

One of many excavations that follow the gravel beds through the sandstone.

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