Indonesia consists of 17,508 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited. The largest are Java, Sumatra, Borneo (shared with Brunei and Malaysia), New Guinea (shared with Papua New Guinea), and Sulawesi. Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia on Borneo, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and East Timor on the island of Timor. Indonesia shares maritime borders across narrow straits with Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines to the north, and with Australia to the south.
Fossil resin (amber) can be found in many location of Indonesia, the amber usually associated with coal/lignite mining location. Sometime fossil resin (amber) mined in lignitic-glauconite clay soils. Fossil resin in Indonesia are Early Miocene in age eg. 23 Ma and some are younger, depend on the lignite age. I just find out there are not only Dominican amber produce fine blue amber but other location have blue too. Several location in Indonesia produce blue amber, West Papua, Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, Lampung (South Sumatra), and West Java.
Here the photos of Indonesian fossil resin (amber) cut by me

Sumatra amber from Lampung, Southern most of Sumatra, Indonesia


Java amber from West Java, Indonesia


Kalimantan (Borneo) amber from West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Here the linkhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/borneoresinite

If I understand correctly, Indonesian amber has a range of age and was not all laid down in the same period. Testing should determine whether or not any not specimen is, firstly a fossil resin and then, secondly,which of amber or copal.

Whether any specimen of either can be considered a valuable gem depends on its beauty and suitability - and an ability to market it successfully.

Have you approached one of the major natural history museums with some of your specimens? I imagine that they are most likely to have the people with the expertise necessary to date your samples and to be able to provide you with more information on their origins. With this first step completed with an accepted authority, you should be much better placed to start enquiries as to the marketability of some/most of this material as an organic gemstone.

P.S. As no doubt you already know, there is virtually no information of quality on Indonesian amber to be found quickly on the net. However, there is this one piece which suggests that the material may be problematic as a gemstone. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... onesia.jpg

It looks very good. I love the banded pieces. I would send a few pieces for testing to the GIA. One test for amber is put a drop of ether on it and if it gets sticky then it is copal (a younger less valuable fossil resin), if it does not get sticky and does not leave a spot then it is amber. I never have had ether around and am sure there are better/more accurate tests than this. The material is impressive, especially the fluorecence. Get it checked out, it could be a new industry for Indonesia.

Low quality raw Sumatra amber with original matrix
All the polished amber pass the acetone test. The solvent (acetone) doesn't affect the polished surface.

Hmm..my country doesn't have such a serious nice natural history museum. Some specimen have been send to gem amber expert. The result, all are amber.

From my experience, Indonesian amber almost similar properties and sometime they looks like the Australian Cape York amber appearance.

24-34 million years old Cape York amber from Northern Australia

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... onesia.jpg
Oh..the wikimedia picture. The Banjarmasin ‘amber’ was send to me for acetone test for discriminate between amber and copal. As the result it is a copal.

Given the proximity of Cape York and much of the Indonesian Archipelago, similar finds in both places might not be too surprising.

i would still e-mail both the Natural History Museum in London and the Smithsonian in Washington DC and see if either is interested in assisting you in establishing a provenance for the several types of presumed fossilised resin of which you have samples. There are other good natural history museums also in Russia, France and Germany (and probably many more) but distance is a sufficient of a problem without adding to it difficulties with language. It is to such sources and not a gem expert to whom you should turn in the first instance perhaps.

Organic materials are not an area of primary interest for me, but I understand there are many trees in Indonesia currently producing vast quantities of sap.


What is the name and qualifications of this expert?
What tests were performed on the stones?
Can we see a copy of the report?

Vanessa Paterson.

OK ...so what is the age? The geologic environment? The tree from which this sap was exuded? The tests that were performed on the specimens?

Only the age of the Sumatra and Java I confident to tell, Miocene (range 10-20 Ma or older), Sumatra amber found in the Talang Akar formation blue-gray clay (some lignite) sediment while Jampang formation Java amber I don't sure about the type of the soil, because the miner don't send me the Java amber strata soils sample (just riverine sand and mudstone adhere to the raw amber cavities). The type of tree? They are shorea sp. (based on IRS), which are completely different botanical origin from jewel-quality amber eg. Baltic, Mexican and Dominican amber. We only use simple amber identification method. Hardness, hot pin, solvent test.
All amber solvent pass the test, Solvent test result: Acetone - inert, Pure Ethanol - inert...
I use Australian Cape York amber for physical reference. I'm not qualified as amber 'expert', just a collector. Scientific references?? you can googled the Sumatra amber/fossil resin/resinite to see the PDF, google books, etc.
#question, if the material only suitable for carving, art sculptures and pendant, are the materials still considered as gemstones/gemorganic?

Mohammad my friend how are you nice to see you hear i think you have the biggest amber collection in your country

Yup!!I think amber from Indonesia is a gem amber which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since times used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry.

Indonesian Amber resin has been a phenomena as non treatment amber. A lot of experts visited the location such as Russians, China Mainland, Spain etc to survey the location.

The results :

Copal is a young amber resin before become amber resin, softer than amber and easy to break or crack. The structure is almost the same,except for outer skin. Unfortunately many of copals are sold by the agents in Java, with Amber resin value and price. Copal is very cheap.

Amber comes from the coal mining in Sumatra which is one of the best locations for coals a worldwide industry ( export quality). Coal mining has the ages of millions of years where amber is found within its layer that many hundreds of species could remain so unchanged, for even up to billions of years in the case

Unlike the more known russian amber, the sumatran amber is completely natural.
No treatment at all is given to the original rough material, except cut and polish.

AGE

Sumatran Amber formation is dated back to Miocene Age (10-20 Ma or older)

More infos about Sumatran Amber
 
Amber is an organic gemstone derived from fossilized tree resin. Amber is approximately 20-100 millions years old. Most amber is typically found in the Baltic region , while a different variety of amber has recently been discovered in coal minings in Sumatra , in the South-East Asia. Unlike Baltic amber which may often contain bits of bark, trapped air bubbles, and sometimes insects, Sumatran amber is relatively less included but features dark color areas within its reddish-cognac body that resemble leopard spots.

However, what is more distinct between the two is that Sumatran amber also has an optical feature that displays a reddish hue under incandescent light and a blue fluorescence under UV light. This phenomenon is not observed in Baltic amber. 
 
Sumatran amber is not heated, clarified, or treated.

NATURAL FLUORESCENCE

A very special feature of Sumatran Amber is its natural fluorescence.
In many cases the flourescence is observable under normal light; it is of course much more intense under UV light

As with all organic gemstones, do not use harsh chemical cleaners to clean your amber jewelry piece, but rather use mild soap and warm water, only as needed. Non treatment Amber resin has different characters.

How to test Indonesian Amber resin?

1. Mineral water 50 litres and 1 kg salt, stir together,put the amber in the water. Amber will float. Copal is sinking.( International Manual Test)

2. 95 % alcohol, smear it on the cotton wool, wipe it it on the amber, sticky amber is copal. (Manual Test, warning Not suggested on organic gemstone)

3. Recent Survey conducted by

Mr. Liu is president of Liu Research Laboratories in South El Monte, California. Dr. Shi is a professor at the School of Gemology, China University of Geosciences in Beijing. Mr. Wang is a student at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

http://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/summer ... blue-amber

3. Prof.Dr.Adonis

Hi James,my best friend

1.Amber Resin

Yes, these are Amber. The resin of pines. ?
I see very large pieces that cracked from even bigers. This is uncommon, very interesting. Where do you get them? This is new to me. If they colect from industrial use (coals) and is some years old but rare and more expensive if is some millions years old. Coals with calorific value 4500 up, must be ancient.

Any way these fotos seems to me very big quantities. The pieces with lines are more beautiful I think

The second case exist only in northern Europe and Peru

Quick test with a lighter you heat like burn an edge. If plastic imitation gives you a plastic smell. If recent copal, gives you a strong smell like white spirit. If amber some smells less or almost nothing. They are all organics resins, stronger chemical test is not suggested. ( Indonesian Amber Resin is point 2 )

2. Honey Hive
I wrote : Beside Amber Resin, not far from location is also found Honey Hive Fossils)

Answer :

These are prehistoric sea Corals fosilised and became quartz family stone ( jasper, agate, etc.)

Common worlwide, There is industrial use for decoration, tourists, jewelery(like fotos) in many Asian countries.
I saw similar samples here in Europe by the Indonesian company.

Please keep in touch

Kind Regards
Adonis (Greece)

Indonesia is very rich of natural resources, but we make other countries rich. Welcome to Indonesia and see yourself.

Thank you for admin, nice try

4. China people said soapstones, a very precious yellow stones in China could only be found in China. But finally they were found in West Java in Indonesia, much more better than the chinese ones. These stones are extracted from 40 meters narrow deep wells manually. Many villagers died and injured.

Thank you

James Headache (soapstones)
Natural Stones Worldwide Supplier
Jakarta-Indonesia