About us
Junapa focusses its sourcing of gemstones and minerals on one region of the world:
The mountain ranges of the Himalaya, Hindukush & Karakorum.
When these mountainous terrains clashed together approximately 100 million years ago in the northern areas of Pakistan, a wide array of (semi)precious gemstones and minerals were produced subsequently.
These include precious stones such as ruby, emerald & sapphire, as well as a wide variety of semi-precious stones, namely aquamarine, peridot, tourmaline & spinel.
Despite the rich mineral deposits in the region, mining practices, as well as local trading is highly informal, unregulated & underdeveloped.
By cooperating with artisanal miners & gem cutters, as well as local NGOs in this region, we are committed to paying fair & above local prices for our material.
In some cases, we do not directly purchase inventory held by the miners, instead we give them access to the global market by photographing their matrial and posting it to our website. Once the stones are sold, miners receive the price they wished for, while we take a commission based fixed fee for mediation. Thereby, we give miners access to the international market and allow them to generate higher income.