On any given day, just outside the rural Australian town of Rubyvale, you will find Peter Brown fifteen metres underground and hard at work. At the end of a seemingly endless network of dimly lit tunnels, he operates in an almost meditative state. Here in his mine he feels more at home than anywhere else. Muscle memory guides the deft movement of his hands and his mind is focused on the diggings that are forever expanding in front of him. His search for one of Mother Nature’s rarest gemstones requires the painstaking removal and processing of this gravel. These precious stones were exploded out of volcanoes approximately fifty million years ago and eroded into these ancient river beds. For over forty years he has mined this ground, and even to this day his fervent passion for discovery remains the same. Behind a big boulder or in the next shovel load, he hopes to find Sapphires. Since unearthing his first in 1974 and admiring it’s rich royal blue colour, he knew he was hooked.

Sapphires have since become his life’s work, and today our family business can proudly claim to be one of the very few in the world that mine, cut and manufacture jewellery with these beautiful gemstones. For all that wish to know the provenance of the precious gems they are buying, for those that want to ensure that they are ethically sourced and mined sustainably, and that the jewellery is designed and manufactured right here at the Rubyvale Gem Gallery; we are proud to share our ‘Sapphire Story’ with you.

Welcome to our new blog! With this we aim to share with our readers more detailed and intimate information of exactly what we do here. In addition to behind the scenes access to our mining, gem cutting and jewellery making processes we are also excited to share some beautiful stories and images of some of our close friends and family with our sapphires and jewellery; real people with a connection to us and our region.

Here is a small taste of what’s still to come…