Not many people will ever climb 20 metres down a hand-dug shaft to see where sapphires are born. We did — because these are our mines.
Where your sapphire's story really begins
Every Ceylon sapphire we sell starts its journey long before it reaches Sydney — in the gem fields of Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, the "City of Gems", where sapphires have been traded for more than two thousand years. Echoes from the Mine is our documentary series showing that journey exactly as it happens: no studios, no stock footage, no actors. Our miners, our mines, our stones.
What the trailer shows
- The gem street of Ratnapura — rough sapphires changing hands in open palms, the way it has been done for centuries
- Twenty metres underground — hand-dug shafts shored with rubber-tree timber, and the miners who work them
- Building a new pit by hand — no machines, the same craft two thousand years on
- River mining — diving beneath the riverbed for gems carried down from the hills over millions of years
- The people behind every stone — the crews whose skill and courage bring each sapphire to the surface
Ethically sourced, from our earth to your hands
Because we mine at origin, we know exactly where every stone comes from and who it supports. That is what ethical sourcing means at Ministry of Gems: our gems support the miners and communities you see in this film — and it's why an unheated sapphire or a teal & parti sapphire from our vault carries a story no chain store can match.
From the illam gravel of Ratnapura to a bespoke sapphire ring made in our own workshop — this is the whole journey, and we're proud to show every step of it.
Follow the series
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to follow Echoes from the Mine — full episodes coming soon: the find, the cut, the setting, the masterpiece. Or start exploring the stones themselves in our blue sapphire collection.
The Story Continues
From twenty metres underground to the maker's bench: watch From Wax to Gold — how our gold jewellery is made, inside our own jewellery factory. The Mine to Masterpiece journey, part two.
About the sound of this film
This film carries no narration — its sound is the mine itself: water, gravel, hand tools and the voices of the men who work it, twenty metres below the Ceylon gem fields. What the cameras follow is the day’s work as it actually happens: the descent into the shaft, gravel brought up from the illam layer, washing and hand-sieving at the surface, and the first daylight sorting of the stones. For the written account of this journey, read Mine to Market or the mine dispatch in The Ministry Magazine.