Longido Ruby
As described by Edward R. Swoboda
In 1949, two English prospectors,
residents of Kenya for many years and with great practical
experience in traveling the wilder, more primitive sections
of that country, were systematically examining a range
of dry low hills that formed part of the planalto of the
Masai tribal nation, bordering the giant upthrust of spectacular
Mount Kilimanjaro.
A narrow dirt track winding through the hills afforded
them vantage spots where they could drive their truck off the road to approach
more closely, likely looking formations that could contain the minerals or gems
they were looking for.
By the end of their second week of long hikes,
made daily from the starting point of their truck at various stops, and closely
examining surface outcrops and checking for the float material that had eroded
down-canyon from the outcrops, they had not turned up anything of real value
and their enthusiasm in this hot, dry work was fast diminishing.
 |
| A fine Longido (Tanzania) ruby
cabochon flanked by Longido ruby crystals in
a green zoisite matrix. Photo courtesy of Edward
Swoboda. |
|
Then
late one afternoon, Tom Blevins, one of the two partners,
made a remarkable discovery. While walking up a gentle
rise and searching the open spaces between the clumps of
dry grass and the thorn bushes for float minerals, he came
upon a small flat sink, devoid of plants, and extending
for several yards to the base of an outcrop of green stone.
Contained within this small basin was what he later described
as the most electrifying and exciting view that he had
ever experienced in all his years of prospecting in Africa.
Covering the sides and the bottom of the basin was a breathtaking
display of flat, sharp-faced, hexagonal, deep red ruby
crystals.
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| Map of Tanzania, showing the
location of the Longido ruby mines. Illustration © R.W.
Hughes |
|
He
was soon on his knees, picking up the fragments and the
loose crystals, some of which measured up to two inches
and weighing hundreds of carats each. The outcrop of green
stone was exposed for several hundred feet beyond the sink
and it proved to be the origin of the ruby crystals. Those
rubies that had not weathered out completely were firmly
held in the green zoisite matrix, as subsequent analysis
in Nairobi determined the green outcrop to be.
At this particular time, with the excitement of
picking up handfuls of loose ruby crystals that filled his canvas bag with thousands
of carats of gleaming red gems, he remembered distinctly, three main thoughts
that went through his mind. One was that he had made a discovery that would make
both he and his partner extremely wealthy. Another was that he wanted to hurry
back to camp to display with pride to his partner, the fabulous crystals he had
loaded into his bag, so that they both could share in excited conversation the
effects that this discovery would have on their futures. The third thought that
kept revisiting him was the suspicion that he had finally discovered what men
and expeditions had been searching for over a very long period of history, the
famous long lost ruby mines of King Solomon!
Returning to camp towards the end of the day, Tom
laid out all of the finer rubies in a beautiful display and then covered them
with a tarp, to await the arrival of his partner. His partner arrived in camp
soon thereafter, tired and discouraged, having found nothing again for all of
his days’ efforts. At the proper moment, the tarp was peeled back, and
with predictable results, the mood of the camp transformed into an excited clamor
of comments and laughter. Early the next morning they were at the ruby local
to assess with greater care, the potential of their find.
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| Edward Swoboda in his backyard,
surrounded by large Longido ruby specimens. Photo
courtesy of Edward Swoboda. |
|
Examining
the green zoisite outcrop, the matrix that the ruby crystals
were formed in, they discovered that the deep red ruby
with clear portions for faceting occurred only at one end
of the outcrop, at that little sink where Tom Blevins had
first discovered the ruby. Here they were all flat and
many were remarkably well crystallized, resembling in form
some ancient hexagonal coins. They rarely exceeded two
inches in diameter by a quarter of an inch in thickness.
Another 150 feet along the strike of the outcrop, a noticeable
change occurred to the rubies, stilt immersed in the green
matrix. They became much larger but coarser in outline,
changing from the thin, flat crystals with transparent
areas into huge hexagonal columns of a lighter red opaque
material. The most distant outcrop from the original discovery
was approximately four hundred feet, at which point the
exposed rubies were sparsely scattered, poorly formed and
opaque, but extremely large.
Claim markers were laid out to include the total
outcrop plus extensions along the strike in each direction. They also took notes
on prominent features which, when sighted in by their compass, gave an angle
of reading accurate enough for the registering of their claim. Having finished
these details, they burdened themselves with more of the loose ruby, consisting
mostly of opaque crystal sections and some very attractive specimens of flat,
platy hexagonal crystals attached to small pieces of the green rock, and trudged
back to camp. That evening they broke camp and returned to Nairobi.
Two weeks later they had returned to the ruby location
with tools and provisions to begin mining. A not too distant village provided
a convenient labor pool where they hired a number of blacks to set up a camp
adjacent to the claim and to begin open cuts into the outcrop at several selected
spots. During the next several weeks of mining, one or the other partner made
frequent short drives to and from the local village and occasionally to Nairobi
for supplies.
 |
| A miner holding ruby in zoisite
at the Longido mine. Photo courtesy of Edward
Swoboda. |
|
An
unforeseen and very strange problem developed in connection
with these driving trips and persisted through the several
weeks during which they used the dirt track. Elephants
had toppled a six-inch thick tree which had fallen across
the road. They managed to detour this roadblock at the
time and did not attach significance to the event. Herd
movements, following a planned seasonal itinerary of forage,
leave in its wake, torn branches, trampled undergrowth
and fallen saplings. Thereafter, more trees were uprooted
over their access road by the elephant herd. From then
on, axes and tow chains were carried to keep the road open.
It became apparent to the partners, having observed these
intelligent beasts for many years, that the elephants were
purposely and deliberately blocking the road to discourage
the unwanted visitors from passing through.
The fragments and loose flat hexagonal plaques
of ruby that Tom had first come upon in the little shallow basin on the on the
slopes facing Mount Kilimanjaro, contained the best and only faceting material
that he and his partner uncovered. The color was an exceptionally pure dark red,
with little or no yellow or brown undertones. One of several rubies Tom had cut
locally weighed close to a carat, a very fine deep red flawless stone. Having
no experience in beneficiating raw gem materials, Tom unfortunately listened
to someone with possibly less experience than he had. Accordingly, a major portion
of the better faceting rough was subjected to a thorough roasting, then quenched
in cold water, on the rationale that this shock treatment would separate the
cutters from the chaff. This trial, of course, added immeasurably to his reserves
of chaff.
He sent a selected parcel of faceting rough to
someone in Hatton Gardens in London, which was never returned to him. Little
by little, the partners’ dreams of riches faded away. Several uneventful
years spent in attempting to market the rubies proved fruitless and they gradually
turned their thoughts and energies away from the ruby and into the mining and
carving of meerschaum, a deposit of which they had also discovered.
It was during this latter period that I arrived
in Nairobi. Possessing no names nor information from this part of Africa, I decided
to visit a local museum maintained by the Kenyan Bureau of Mines. Espying a very
attractive specimen of ruby corundum in a green matrix, I inquired of the curator-director
its origin. He kindly explained that the specimen had been donated by a Mr. Blevins,
a local resident, whose address he supplied me with.
 |
| A small faceted Longido ruby,
along with a large ruby crystal with attached
green zoisite. Photo courtesy of Edward Swoboda. |
|
The
taxi pulled up to a two story building, the address given
as the headquarters of the two mining partners, just as
some man was descending an outside staircase dressed in
bush clothes. Hastily leaving the taxi, 1 hurried to intercept
this man, asking if he knew the whereabouts of a Mr. Tom
Blevins. He answered that yes he did and proffered his
hand. At that very moment he was departing for a few days’ stay
at the meershaum locality. Upon telling him of my interest
in ruby corundum, he thereupon drove me directly to his
home.
Arriving at his residence on the outskirts of Nairobi,
he drove us around to the rear where he normally parked, an open area of ample
shade trees, loose running chickens and assorted equipment and litter, including
an old car with a missing wheel, supported by a huge chunk of bright green zoisite
with three huge ruby crystals attached. I think my eyes momentarily left their
sockets. Matrix ruby crystals were scattered everywhere. As I knelt to examine
the many pieces, Tom said, motioning towards an isolated wooden framework under
the trees, “The best are inside the garage.”
Unlocking and pushing wide the swinging doors to
allow the light in, he invited me to enter. Two rows of rusting carbide drums
met my eyes, each can filled to the brim with bright red chunks of ruby corundum.
Shelves on the interior walls were clustered with dozens and dozens of plaque-like
ruby crystals on matrix, some crystals up to two inches in diameter, and most
of them attractively weathered to stand out from their matrices.
Two boxes of selected material resting on the carbide
drums contained loose crystals and crystal sections weighing up to several thousand
carats each. A huge mound of green zoisite boulders covered most of what was
left of the floor space, each piece containing an exceptional attachment of ruby
corundum. Just the cleaned, processed ruby – as I learned afterwards – amounted
to over four and a half million carats.
Truly, I was overwhelmed, gazing speechless at
this massive collection of material. My meager traveling budget gave me a feeling
of hopelessness and, as I gradually began to reassemble my thinking processes,
I began discrete inquiries with the hopes of at least obtaining a few of the
colorful matrix specimens that were lying about. Tom explained that their disillusionment
was so complete, they wanted to rid themselves of the total lot, all or nothing,
in order to finance the meerschaum mining, pipe-carving, marketing business they
were presently involved in.
 |
| Small faceted Longido rubies,
along with a large ruby crystal with attached
green zoisite. Photo courtesy of Edward Swoboda. |
|
Gathering
courage, I asked Tom what amount he was asking for everything
in sight, thinking and hoping that perhaps I could find
some financial backing. He answered with a double digit
number that took me some time to frame an appropriate inquiry
to, not knowing whether he was thinking in terms of tens
of thousands of dollars or perhaps even higher amounts.
When he answered that the amount he sought was only so
much, a very fair price and far lower than I had expected,
I sort of went into shock. I delayed responding to him
for several minutes, once again attempting to gather my
senses, and only then became audible with a strange remark
that came out as, “and what about the freight?” Actually,
I didn’t know if it were possible to ship all this
material out of the country. Tom misunderstood the torpor
of my delayed question and promptly offered to pay the
freight also, assuring me that it would be no problem to
box it up and dispatch it within a few days.
Being assured that the material would be handled
by professional forwarders, I then asked Tom if the shipment could.also include
two tons of the green zoisite. He replies, “Yes, no problem.” At
least I expected to pay extra for the zoisite, but he included that also under
the original price quoted. My, what a transaction!
Returning to Los Angeles, the timing continued
to prove fortunate for me in the marketing of this material. The Kazanjian Brothers
gem and jewelry company had recently completed a fabulous Lincoln head carving
of black star sapphire and were presently searching the world market for some
big chunks of ruby, appropriate for sculpting another bust in their Presidential
Series of gem carvings. The first crystal I showed them almost brought tears
to those experienced eyes. It weighed several thousand carats and was a very
select deep red hexagonal prism of uniform consistency that must have been just
what they were looking for.
In subsequent months, the Kazanjians methodically
went about obtaining all of the large ruby corundum crystals I possessed, those
over three or four thousand carats each, including one mammoth crystal that weighed
in excess of 30,000 carats. They eventually decided to take the total balance
of the cleaned and cobbed raw ruby, weighing a total of several million carats.
 |
| A small faceted Longido ruby,
along with a large ruby crystal cluster with
attached green zoisite. Photo courtesy of Edward
Swoboda. |
|
Many
years later in northern Tanzania, I eventually visited
this now famous locale in the company of a Tanzanian government
official. A guard posted at the gateway to the property
questioned my travel companion severely and at length in
native dialect before we were allowed entry into the frayed
mining compound. The surface area was scarred with rusting
equipment and dilapidated structures, in the process of
slowly being overtaken by a mantle of scrub growth. These
surviving remnants constituted the leftovers from years
of selective scrounging from the local villagers.
Touring the property on foot, one of the several
government employees straggling in our rear covertly showed me two small pieces
of zoisite, each with some mangled reddish corundum splotches attached, which
I politely refused. The cursory examination that I was allowed to make during
this visit left me with the impression that the surface features had been swept
clean of anything of note. The contention among the personnel guarding the property
was that the mine was soon to be rehabilitated to continue mining the small ruby
rough that it formerly supplied in such great quantities to India for the faceting
of melee.
By the time they had worked over the easily accessible
surface outcrops, the two partners had accumulated in all, an amazing total of
over four million carats of rough ruby. The largest crystal found was in a class
by itself, weighing slightly more than 30,000 carats. From the standpoint of
sheer quantity, I think this locality is the largest producer of ruby ever known.
In later years in the hands of new owners, shafts were driven down into the green
zoisite and for many years rubies were mined, totaling hundreds of thousands
of carats. Most of this production was sent to India to be cut into beautifully
colored small faceted gems.
 |
| A small faceted Longido ruby,
along with a large ruby crystal cluster with
attached green zoisite. Photo courtesy of Edward
Swoboda. |
|
Fallbrook, CA 92028 USA
