Word got out, and Ilakaka swelled to tens of thousands of residents - the center of a sapphire boom, today the source of nearly 50% of all the sapphires in the world.
Illegal miners mixed with large-scale operations, all operating under little or no regulation, in a wild-west atmosphere of potential fortunes, lawlesness, violence and hardship.
In the years since, the easily-mined sapphire fields have been picked clean, and the remaining miners often work in deep holes, climbing far underground. Mining is also a family effort - according to an official study, of the 21,000 children living in the region, 19,000 belong to working families.
Miners work in unison on September 13, 2008 as they shovel sand and loose gravel at an open-pit sapphire mine where they work for a daily wage near the southwestern Madagascan town of Ilakaka.
Miners dig in a sapphire mine on September 12, 2008 near the southwestern Madagascan town of Ilakaka (background). The mushrooming town of Ilakaka, which in October 1998 saw a major influx of illegal miners who came in search of fortune after the discovery of a large sapphire deposit
Dieudonne Laha, shows precious stones that he found in the past two days after he and others dug out and washed gravel in a nearby river basin in their search for sapphires , in Anzanakaro near Ilakaka, Madagascar. The gravel which is dug up from deep holes is washed and strained in the nearby river as the miners scrutinize their rocky crop in search for sapphires
Miners finishing their shift at an open sapphire pit mine walk back to their families in the nearby town of Ilakaka, Madagascar
View taken on September 15, 2008 of the mushrooming town of Ilakaka, which in October 1998 saw a major influx of illegal miners who came in search of fortune after the discovery of a large sapphire deposit
Noushad Hajirwa (left), a tough and knowledgable Sri Lankan gem buyer takes a close look at sapphire stones offered to him by local miners in the Ilakaka, Madagascar on September 13, 2008. Hajirwa is one of the many Thai and Sri Lankan gem buyers who do business in the town
A worker takes a close look at a sapphire at a local precious stone business in the Ilakaka, Madagascar . Local miners in the region work deep narrow holes where they scrape gravel and sand in search of sapphires and fortune
A local miner joins others at the window of a precious stone business in Ilakaka, Madagascar in the hope that a Sri Lankan gem buyer examining his stones will want to buy them
Four sapphires sit on next to a wad of notes at a local precious stone business , where a Sri Lankan gem buyer examines stones that local miners have harvested from deep holes, gravel and sand nearby
Miners working in an open pit sapphire mine near the southwestern Madagascan town of Ilakaka head home, climbing out of the pit at the end of their shift
Miners working in an open pit sapphire mine near the southwestern Madagascan town of Ilakaka head home, climbing out of the pit at the end of their shift
Two miners work on securing a bag of gravel taken from a deep hole they and others dug near a river basin in their search for sapphires in Anzanakaro near Ilakaka, Madagascar
Five men watch as miners work together to move sand and gravel up the side wall of an open-pit sapphire mine near Ilakaka, Madagascar
Miners sift gravel in their makeshift strainers in a river basin in their search for sapphires in Anzanakaro near Ilakaka, Madagascar
Sapphires of various colors are shown, lined up at a local precious stone business in the Ilakaka, Madagascar
Source :BOSTON
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