Our Company

Columbia Gem House, Inc. is a vertically-integrated gemstone mining, cutting and marketing company founded by Eric Braunwart, President and CEO, in 1977 and is a charter member of the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA). Columbia Gem House, Inc. is perhaps best known as the world's largest supplier of brand-name exotic gemstones including Tashmarine®, Cortez Pearls™, Grape Garnet®, Fire Citrine®, Spice Pearls®, Imperial Diopside®, Royal Kings Plain Sapphire®, Purple Sage® Chalcedony, Seafoam Tourmaline® and Nyala™ ruby and sapphire. Each brand is limited to the highest quality rough of each mine's production and cut with precision for maximum brilliance and color. Rough gems are mined and carefully sorted into quality categories at our main office in Vancouver, WA, and only the best qualities are sent to our cutting factory.

Mining

Columbia Gem House, Inc. has exclusive agreements with many mines around the world, including the mine in Southern Malawi that produces Nyala™ ruby & sapphire, the Tashmarine® mine in China, the Cortez Pearl™ farm in Mexico, and a new mine in Tasmania. Together with its jewlery-manufacturing subsidary, Trigem Design™, this makes Colombia Gem House, Inc. one of the few companies in the world that can take a gemstone from the mine to the finished jewelry design.

"I wish people had the chance to see what I see - the whole journey of a gem. From a rock that comes out of the ground thousands of miles away, across the ocean to the cutters' wheel, to the brilliant centerpiece of a piece of fine colored stone jewelry," Eric Braunwart says.

Cutting

In 1991 Columbia Gem House, Inc. helped establish a new gem cutting factory in Shenzen, China to cut and polish rough gemstones. We developed our own cutting facility to meet specific customer demand and to raise the level of cutting standards to the highest in the industry. We can confidently say we now produce the best commercial cutting in the world. At the same time, we developed strict procedures for production to ensure the origin of each gemstone.

Our cutting factory is a model workplace. It doesn't just meet international standards - it sets them. Our successes have now become our trademark within the gem-cutting industry. We now offer our expertise in cutting services to you.

Fair Trade Gems

Columbia Gem House, Inc. is the principle force behind the Fair Trade Gems. The Quality Assurance and Fair Trade Gems Protocols is the standard by which the gem mining industry is measured and has tangible and lasting implications. Not only does it increase the standard of living for the miners and gem cutters, Fair Trade Gems benefits the global community at large. In addition, we work closely with small miners across the American West. In our efforts we developed the innovative GemAmerica™ program which helps promote gemstones mined here in the United States.

More on Fair Trade Gems