Gem Hunt (Reality, English)
Status: Ended
Premiered: 2013-10-15
Ended: 2014-01-21
Network: Travel Channel
Country: US
Airs on: Tuesday
Air time: 22:00
Runtime: 60 minutes
How do jewelers secure their inventory? They buy pieces from people like Ron LeBlanc. Gem Hunt takes viewers inside the daring, unpredictable and often dangerous gem industry, where LeBlanc and his cohorts -- luxury goods adviser and entrepreneur Diane Robinson and geologist Bernie Gaboury -- travel to remote trading regions in search of the world's biggest, brightest and most profitable jewels. With potentially enormous payoffs and the aspiration of finding the perfect stone as guiding forces, LeBlanc and his partners set out to acquire gems -- from emeralds in Colombia and moonstone in Sri Lanka, to pearls in Myanmar and topaz in Brazil -- for their own discerning clientele. The hunters quickly size up the players in each locale, ensure that the goods are authentic or potential fakes, and negotiate the best price before the stone is cut.