mining

Buy Your Own Mining Museum

A unique bit of history is up for sale in Tavistock, England. Morwellham Quay was a mining town that served silver, tin and copper mines in the area. It has been turned into a restored Victorian mining village and museum and is a world heritage site. But lately visitors has dropped off and a few months ago the Devon County Council decided to stop funding the center. It went into administration and closed at the end of last month. Now, as the BBC News reports, it's up for sale for a guide price of £1.1million. Potential buyers must submit sealed bids and written proposals on what they would like to do with the site by January 21.

The village is set in 200 acres and has an open-air museum that includes the restored 19th century village, the docks and quays (complete with restored ship), the George and Charlotte copper mine, a Victorian farm and nature reserve.

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Tags: england, mining, morwhellam quay, MorwhellamQuay, museum for sale, MuseumForSale

Designer Katharine Hamnett Sells Responsible Jewels

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Fashion designer Katharine Hamnett has been a voice for protest in the fashion industry since the 1980s when she launched her first line of stark black and white protest T-shirts. Since those days she has been a force for HIV/AIDS education, eliminating child labor, the environment and a host of other causes. Now Hamnett has created a line of environmentally-aware jewelry. Her diamond and gold jewelry pieces are named after the Greek gods and goddesses and are classically styled engagement and wedding rings that are ethically sound. The diamonds used are ethically, mined, cut and polished in Canada and environmentally certified by the Canadian government. The gold is mined using ancient techniques and the land is re-forested after mining so that the land ends up in better condition than it was before mining. A percentage of the value of the gold is re-invested in the community that mined it and 10% of the profits go to the Association for Responsible Mining. The Venus ring shown here sells for £ 7000 (around $13,620) and are made with three carats of diamonds total. It's may be pricier than other similarly sized rings but what beautiful peace of mind.

[via Vogue]

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Tags: diamonds, do no evil, ethics, jewels, katharine hamnett, KatharineHamnett, mining

The Yogo Sapphire

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

An Associated Press article led me to discover the yogo sapphire. I was familiar with Burmese sapphires but yogo sapphires, which are mined in Montana, are famous for their deep natural cornflower color. Yogos are becoming more and more rare. There is only one active yogo mine currently and the prices for larger stones are increasing. For the most part, yogo sapphires are small (half a carat or less). Prices for these small yogo sapphires are low but the larger stones are rarer than diamonds. There are still potential sapphire deposits in the ground but there isn't a big demand for yogos since not a lot of people know about them and the scarcity of larger stones makes it hard to market on a larger scale. The 2.23 carat yogo shown here sells for $23,000.

Tags: gems, jewels, mining, montana, sapphire, yogo