One by one, the world's deposits of blue sapphire are running dry.

Kashmir had production fall off significantly, the Mogok tract in Burma was sealed off in 1962, Cambodia declared it's Pailin region off limits in 1974 and Thailand's fields are becoming exhausted.

This has left Sri Lanka as the only steady producer of fine sapphires and even there, the civil unrest in the region is making fine sapphires scarce.