Ghost Mine in the Sky with Diamonds

The andesine-labradorite mine owner, a miner, and Chiang Min (from JTV's Bangkok subsidiary) visiting the mine in Tibet.


JTV has expanded their “Learning Library” and they sure are busy promoting it! I took a look at it, and from what I can tell--aside from the standard textbook info on jewelry and gemstones--what they are really trying to do is give their side of the whole andesine-labradorite scandal in an “educational” format.

So what do they have to say?

First, the accusations, class-action lawsuit, and huge settlement in the millions of dollars are described simply as "a flurry of activity on red and green andesine-labradorite. " Cute. Iraq has had a flurry of activity these last few years too!

They also state that the so-called Tibetan "Ghost Mine in the Sky" is real and produces natural red andesine-labradorite. They "can confidently state that there is a mining camp and many deep holes in the ground ... There are numerous mine shafts at this mining site, which makes it less likely the site is a diversion or a hoax." The mine is lacking equipment, but they claim this is because they have to mine the stones by hand. However, they are still waiting on lab reports from the samples they collected at the Tibetan "Ghost Mine in the Sky."

JTV also claims that they have "not sold Mexican labradorite as andesine-labradorite." I guess they were accused of shipping the Mexican yellow labradorite to China so that they could claim it was was the more valuable andesine-labradorite. However, they say that they shipped the gems to China for faceting only and never tried to pass them off as anything but Mexican labradorite.

JTV’s "Jewel Hunter Jack" found mines on the China/Mongolia that yielded yellow stones, and when laboratory tested, these stones proved to be andesine-labradorite. The stones are copper-diffused to create red and green colors. "JTV has every reason to believe these mines are real and functioning. It was on this trip that Jewel Hunter Jack learned andesine-labradorite is mined as yellow and treated to transform the stones to red or green. At the time, the miners told Jack the stones were only heated. However, we have now learned they are actually color enhanced/diffused."

Since this has been a long, heated, and complicated issue, I would be very interested to hear a rebuttal from the other side. Anyone?