Pailin sapphire & ruby

The gem field and the Khmer Rouge stronghold are the same place.

Pailin is a province in western Cambodia at the northern edge of the Cardamom Mountains, close to the Thai border and carved out of Battambang province in 1996 after the surrender of the Ieng Sary faction. It remained under Khmer Rouge control long after their defeat in 1979, and from 1994 to 1998 it served as the capital of the Provisional Government of National Union and National Salvation of Cambodia.

Inside Cambodia it is known for its natural resources, meaning precious gems and timber. The US Geological Survey lists Pailin as a past producer of corundum and zirconium, and corundum is the mineral that sapphire and ruby are varieties of. That single line is the whole geological case for this pin.

The place has changed hands repeatedly. Once part of the Khmer Empire, Pailin was taken in 1558 by the Burmese under Bayinnaung, then ruled by the Siamese until 1907 and again from 1941 to 1946, when it returned to Cambodia. The Thai knew it as Phailin. There is still a busy border crossing here.

Two cautions worth stating plainly. First, gem wealth funded a long war in this province, and the ground around former Khmer Rouge positions in western Cambodia is not casual walking country; go with people who know it. Second, the USGS record itself carries the survey's warning that it lacks bibliographic references, so treat the commodity listing as a pointer rather than a survey report.

One word in the record is worth reading carefully. The survey lists Pailin as a PAST producer, which is a statement about the workings it knew of, not a claim that the province is empty.