Only available secondhand!
 Ruby, sapphire, corundum: Beautiful, hard, rare, precious.

 The world's most precious gemstone. The mineral corundum is colorless in its pure form. Only the finest "impurities" transform corundum into a precious gemstone: The element chromium colors corundum into the red ruby, iron and titanium into the blue sapphire. The finest qualities of these two classic corundums command higher prices than any other gemstone in the world. The world's corundum deposits. Where yesterday there was no man's land, tomorrow a world-famous deposit may lie. The history of ruby and sapphire deposits is as changeable as fortune itself. This extraLapis issue presents the current state of affairs: Experts from around the world describe the current situation in Asia, Africa, America, Australia, and Europe in well-researched reports. Also in this issue: Colors, properties, and formation of corundum. The latest syntheses: how they are created and how to identify them. The Mani Mala, a historical Indian gemstone book.

 Contents:
 The Formation of Corundum (D. Schwarz)/Mani Mala: An Indian Gemstone Book (S. Greif)/India, Land of the Great Rubies? (Schwarz)/Sri Lanka, the first classic (D. Schwarz)/The "Sun of Mogok" (R. Schlüssel)/Mong Hsu, Myanmar (K. Schmetzer & A. Peretti)/Ruby mining in Thailand (K. Schmetzer)/Trapiche rubies from Southeast Asia (K. Schmetzer & H.-J. Bernhardt)/Vietnam, a journey to Luc Yen (P. Rustemeyer)/Kashmir, the new ruby find (RE Kane)/Pakistan, rubies from the Hunza Valley (A. Weerth)/Afghanistan, the current situation (A. Weerth)/Pamir/Tajikistan (D. Schwarz, CP Smith)/Laos: Ban Huai Sai (G. Bosshardt)/Nepal: Ganesh Himal (D. Schwarz)/Africa's corundum: Kenya and Tanzania (D. Schwarz & Ch. Bank)/Madagascar: Corundum from North and South (D. Schwarz & J. Kanis)/USA, Montana: colorful sapphires (RE Kane)/South America: Brazil and Colombia (D. Schwarz)/Australia's sapphire deposits (BJ Neville & F. v. Gnielinski)/Europe: corundum for collecting (R. Hochleitner)/Synthetic rubies from Dourus (HH Hänni & K. Schmetzer)/New: Russian hydrothermal syntheses (K. Schmetzer)/Corundum in "Lapis"/Further reports on corundum.

 With cover, 100 pages in lapis format (21 x 30 cm). Published: 1998