Our guest for that webinar was Nirina Rakotosaona. Nirina Rakotosaona is an interesting gem miner. After getting an aeronautic engineer degree in Toulouse, France, he started several business in his country: Madagascar. In 1998 he was managing a lumbermill near Fianarantsoa when he heard of a new sapphire find close to Ranohira in southern part of Madagascar. He decided to go and see and started mining sapphire in what is known today as the Ilakaka deposit. Soon he learned the basics and then became one of the best experts in sapphire mining in the region, eventually he managed to operate the largest mining operation in the region. In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 where he went bankrupt, he moved to Andranombambo where sapphires were first found in Madagascar in the early 1990’s and then he went also mining rubies near Andilamena and Didy before returning to Ilakaka with new mining techniques.

I first met Nirina in 2005 when he was mining near Sakameloka, then I followed his projects each time I visited Madagascar enjoying a lot his tremendous practical knowledge of the deposit.

The webinar « Mining rubies and Sapphires in Madagascar » took us to discuss with Nirina about Madagascar and its fascinating gemstone deposits particularly the sapphire deposits around Ilakaka.

We hope that you will enjoy this extra-ordinary discussion.

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