Ruby occurrences in the Fiskenæsset area, West Greenland

In the Fiskenæsset area, 150 km south of Nuuk, West Greenland, there are numerous ruby showings. They are mostly situated at the contact between a large anorthosite complex and supracrustal rocks, mainly amphibolites, where the rubies were formed during high grade metamorphism. The rubies are up to twenty centimetres long, and they occur in a complex mineral assemblage comprising such minerals as pargasite, sapphirine, kornerupine, red spinel and phlogopite.

Several of the ruby-bearing zones have been prospected in detail and the major ruby occurrences have been bulk sampled. So far about 50 metric tonnes of ruby-bearing material have been collected and shipped to Canada.

Most of the rubies recovered are heavily fractured, but less fractured rubies also occur. Some of these have produced attractive cabochons. A few of them, cut and polished into faceted stones, have an attractive pidgeon blood red colour.

There seems to be little possibility of finding rubies in placers in the Fiskenæsset area.