Hello Everyone,

I will be traveling to Afghanistan in the next few days to help train gemstone faceting to a few Afghani students.  I am excited to help develop the internal infrastructure in Afghanistan and help the people of the country harness their vast gemstone resources.  Afghanistan has a rich history of gemstone mining with gemstones such as: emerald, ruby, spinel, tourmaline, kunzite, morganite and lapis lazuli.  Until recently the country has had to send almost all of the rough gemstones to other cutting centers around the world.

By developing cutting houses in-country the Afghan government is hoping to develop jobs and a stable income for its people.  Many of the country’s population live on less than $1000 a year so providing any sort of long term job growth will assist the population greatly.

I have wanted to travel to Afghanistan since I was very young.  The country has many natural
wonders, but at the same time, 30 years of warfare have taken a devastating toll on its people.

While in Afghanistan I will be looking for a few things to bring back for myself and anyone who wants me to locate rough or cut gemstones.  I will also be researching projects that could benefit the gemstone industry in Afghanistan to implement with Green Gem Foundation.  For anyone who is not familiar with Green Gem Foundation please read my previous post here.  If you have not already done so, please sign up for my newsletter on the right hand side, to receive updates during the trip.

To contact me to reserve a piece of rough or a cut gemstone, please contact me here.

I will have access to email, skype, cell phone and paypal during my trip so feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

Jim Rentfrow