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deposit at Habachtal near Salzburg, early 6th centuries AD) periods. All the EMERALD AND OTHER BERYLS
Austria was worked as early as the other mining sites are strictly Roman- Beryl is a beryllium alumino-silicate
Roman period, there is no conclusive Byzantine or Islamic (mid-6th century mineral with the chemical formula
evidence that it was known prior to the AD onward) in date. Beryl mining Be3Al2(Si6O18). Ordinary beryl is
Middle Ages (Sinkankas, 1981, p. 371- ceased in Egypt with Spain’s discovery colourless but the presence of various
377). However, Giuliani et al. (1998, of superior-quality Colombian emeralds trace impurities gives the gemstone
2000) have shown that the green beryls in the 16th century AD. It is commonly varieties of this mineral their distinctive
from Egypt and Austria are distinguish- reported in the literature (e.g., Giuliani colours: green emerald, blue to bluish-
able by their oxygen-isotopic composi- et al., 2000, p. 631) that emeralds were green aquamarine, pink morganite, red
tion, and such testing, if applied to used in Egypt as early as the 18th bixbite, and yellow to yellowish-orange
Roman jewelry, may yet reveal dynasty (16th through 14th centuries BC) heliodor (Sinkankas, 1981, p. 206-235).
Habachtal’s true historical significance. of the New Kingdom. This claim, Beryl almost always occurs as elongated
Egyptian emerald mining oc- however, is based on the crystals with a hexagonal cross-section.
curred not only in Wadi Sikait but also misidentification by archaeologists of It has a Mohs scratch hardness of 7.5-8,
at several other sites within 15 km of amazonite (a green variety of which is exceeded by only a few other
this valley, including Gebel Zabara to microcline) as emerald (Lucas and gemstones such as chrysoberyl at 8.5,
the northwest, Wadi Nugrus and Wadi Harris, 1962, p. 389-390). The earliest ruby and sapphire corundum at 9, and
Abu Rusheid to the west, Wadi Umm unequivocal evidence for emerald diamond at 10. Although highly resist-
Kabu and Wadi Umm Debaa to the mining in Egypt dates to Ptolemaic ant to grinding and cutting, beryl does
southeast, and Wadi Gimal to the times, and even for this period the have a weakly developed basal cleavage.
southwest. Mining began first in Wadi evidence is scant. It was the Romans Ancient stonecutters could thus cleave it
Sikait sometime during the Ptolemaic who were primarily responsible for perpendicular to the crystal axis to
period (late 4th through mid-1st centu- developing the mines, and it was they produce hexagonal prisms of any
ries BC) with most of the activity who gave the mining district its ancient desired length.
occurring in the subsequent Roman name, Mons Smaragdus or ‘Emerald The name ‘beryl’ comes from
(late 1st century BC through 4th century Mountain’. the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder
AD) and Early Byzantine (5th through who, writing in the 1st century AD,
used beryllus to refer to a variety of
minerals having long, prismatic crystals
with hexagonal cross-sections. His
smaragdus included the Egyptian beryl
among other green stones, but he also
recognized its relationship with beryllus:
“many people consider the nature of
berulli to be similar to, if not identical
with, that of smaragdi” (Pliny’s Natural
History 37.16-20 in Eichholz, 1962,
p. 212-227; Healy, 1999, p. 202-203,
241-245). The modern name ‘emerald’
is derived from the ancient smaragdus, a
word that can be traced back at least as
far as the late 4th or early 3rd century
BC when it was used by the Greek
writer Theophrastus as a catchall for
green gemstones (Theophrastus’ On
Stones 23-27 in Caley and Richards,
1956, p. 50-51, 97-109). The Egyptian
green beryl, however, was almost
certainly unknown to him. The first
mention of beryl (smaragdos) mining in
Egypt was by the Greek geographer
Strabo about 24 BC (Strabo’s Geogra-
phy 17.1.45 in Jones, 1959, p. 120-
121). When mining began in Wadi
Sikait is not known precisely but, given
the almost total absence of green beryl
Figur
iguree 1. Egypt showing the location of Wadi Sikait. in Ptolemaic jewelry, it must have been
GEOSCIENCE CANADA Volume 31 Number 2 June 2004 71
Figur
iguree 2. Topographical-geographical map of the Wadi Sikait area showing the extent of beryl mining.
72
late in the Ptolemaic period and prob- and fieldwork by the author. This is the
ably not much before Strabo wrote first map of Wadi Sikait to combine
about it. topographic and geologic information,
True emerald has a bright, and also to show the distribution of
uniform, medium to dark green colour ancient mine workings. The rock units
and is transparent. Beryls of this quality in the map legend are listed chronologi-
are very rare not only in Wadi Sikait cally downward from youngest to oldest.
but throughout the surrounding beryl- Not shown on the map are numerous
mining region. The Egyptian green beryl diabase dikes that postdate the granite
almost always has a pale colour and a and intrude all other rock units. The
cloudy translucency (due to abundant schist melange also contains some small
fluid inclusions), and it also commonly pockets of metadiorite-metagabbro as,
contains minute mineral inclusions for example, around the Middle Village.
Figure 3. Drawing of a 1st century AD
(usually phlogopite or actinolite, or their All the rock units date to the Late Roman necklace (39 cm long) with large
weathered clay-mineral equivalents). It Proterozoic era and belong to the Pan- prismatic emerald beads, pearls and gold
is ironic, therefore, that Egypt’s famous African Series except for the granite- from Scafati, Italy (from plate 152 of Siviero,
‘emerald mines’ produced very few true granodiorite gneiss, which dates to an 1959).
emeralds. earlier part of the Proterozoic (Hassan
The poor quality of Egyptian and Hashad, 1990).
green beryl has been attested to repeat- concentrations ranging from 150 to
edly in both the ancient and modern OCCURRENCE OF BERYL 1013 ppm, and averaging 552 ppm
literature (for a partial summary see The geologic occurrence of beryl in (EGSMA, 1992, Table 3.4; A. El
Sinkankas, 1981, p. 542-548). For Wadi Sikait has been well described by Dougdoug, Geology Dept., Cairo
example, Pliny the Elder complained Basta and Zaki (1961) and Abdalla and University, Egypt, pers. comm.).
that the “Ethiopian [i.e., Egyptian] Mohamed (1999), and their findings are Chromium is commonly found in rocks
smaragdus is … rarely flawless or consistent with what is known generally of mafic composition, where it occurs
uniform in tint” (Pliny’s Natural History about the origins of beryl deposits as an impurity in mica and amphibole
37.18.69 in Eichholz, 1962, p. 218- elsewhere (Sinkankas, 1981, p. 339- minerals through substitution for the Al
219). Although Egypt’s ordinary green 356). For green beryl to form, two and Fe in their crystal structures. In
beryl may not have been highly es- relatively rare elements need to be Wadi Sikait, these rocks are represented
teemed by the Romans, it was still present: beryllium and chromium. by phlogopite and actinolite schists in
clearly much valued by them for jewelry. Beryllium-bearing minerals are most the schist melange. The actinolite schist
It was the hardest green gemstone commonly associated with hydrothermal occurs as thin sheets and lenses within
available to them and it also had the veins that are offshoots of silicic magma the much more abundant phlogopite
added mystic of coming from fabled bodies. At Wadi Sikait, such a magma schist.
Egypt. Perhaps another appeal of beryl body produced the granite with its Beryl occurs mainly in the
was its naturally faceted hexagonal quartz and pegmatite veins. These veins phlogopite schist and quartz/pegmatite
prisms that mimicked the more costly generally vary from a few centimetres veins, and is restricted to within tens of
cut gemstones. Unlike in recent centu- up to one metre in thickness, and have centimetres of their contact. It is found
ries, when beryl has been ground into intruded all older rock units in the area. as individual crystals and, more often,
faceted stones, the Romans used the The veins are now much deformed and as small clusters of crystals. Crystals can
natural hexagonal prisms cleaved from so commonly appear as discontinuous be up to 3 cm in length but most are
crystals. These were either fixed into lenticular bands and pods. The occur- much shorter. The beryl in the quartz/
metal settings or drilled along the prism rence of beryl is intimately linked with pegmatite veins varies from colourless
axis and strung as beads (Fig. 3). these Be-enriched veins, especially those or white to light green but in the
of milky quartz, which are the most phlogopite schist the colour ranges from
GEOLOGY OF WADI SIKAIT plentiful (Fig. 4). light to dark green. Given that the schist
Rock Units Only minute amounts of Cr is a source of Cr, it is not surprising
Much has been written about the substituting for Al in the beryl crystal that this rock would have the greener
geology of the Wadi Sikait region (e.g., structure are needed to give the mineral beryl, including true emerald. The
MacAlister, 1900; Hume, 1934, p. 109- a green colour, with darker shades geologic occurrence of green beryl at
125; EGSMA, 1951, p. 82-94; Basta produced by higher Cr concentrations. Wadi Sikait is very similar to that at
and Zaki, 1961; El Shazly and Hassan, Although V can also colour beryl green, Canada’s Regal Ridge. Here the green
1972; Hassan and El Shatoury, 1976; chemical analyses have shown that Cr is beryl, which is coloured by Cr, occurs
EGSMA, 1992, p. 31-83; and Abdalla the colorant for Wadi Sikait beryl. within mica schist close to its contact
and Mohamed, 1999). The map in Unpublished analyses of five beryl with quartz veins spawned by a nearby
Figure 2 is based on both this literature specimens from Wadi Sikait reveal Cr granite intrusion (Groat et al., 2002,
GEOSCIENCE CANADA Volume 31 Number 2 June 2004 73
Figure 4. Quartz vein in phlogopite schist showing traces of ancient mining. Figure 5. View across the South Village
ruins looking south along Wadi Sikait.
p. 1330). Contrary to what Giuliani et that it goes back at least as early as the preserved, ancient roadway leading
al. (1998, p. 513-514) claim, Wadi 1st century AD, and poorly preserved down to Wadi Sikait (Fig. 9).
Sikait is not a Type II emerald deposit, Greek and hieroglyphic inscriptions Modern prospecting and small-
where Be-bearing hydrothermal fluids hint at an earlier Ptolemaic date. Both scale mining occurred in Wadi Sikait
permeated Cr- or V-bearing rocks along the quartz-muscovite and talc schists are during the first three decades of the last
thrust faults or shear zones. Both Wadi common lithologies in the schist century. Most traces of this activity are
Sikait and Regal Ridge classify as Type I melange unit. The next largest settle- found around the Middle and North
emerald deposits, where Be-bearing ment is the Middle Village, which is villages, where modern workings occur
quartz or pegmatite veins from a perched midway up the west side of the amongst the ancient ones. Past attempts
granitic pluton intruded Cr- or V- mountain known as Gebel Sikait at reopening the Wadi Sikait mine were
bearing mafic or ultramafic rocks. (Fig. 8). Here there is also a well- all unsuccessful because of the generally
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