Stories from Inner Mongolia: Ba Lin Stones, exactly what are our borrowers investing in?

George Scott

If like me you’ve had a look at our list of our now and previous borrowers you might be a little confused by what exactly are balin stones, or balindan as it’s been written in one translation. We have had a few borrowers who have pledged to use their loan to buy one or some of these Balin stones, some claiming that the market is right to make a profit of as much as 75% profit on a single stone in a year. With a couple days to myself and not wanting to stray too far from town as the temperature was fast dropping past -15(C), I went to investigate.

This sculpture was quoted to me at RMB 50,000 (about $8,500)

Balindan stones, named after the region they’re found Balinyouqi. They are a kind of semi precious gemrock. For those of you who are interested they’re “found along bedding planes and in fracture zones of altered ryolites and ignimbrites, i.e. welded tuffs, that have undergone dickitzation and kaolinitzation.” The Balin stone itself is a fine grained stone consisting of various colored minerals which is found exclusively in this area, with other similar types of stone found in other parts of the  China and India.The stones are soft, as rocks go, and can be carved into highly intricate and elaborate sculptures and name stamps

Not far from where I’m staying there is street dedicated to shops to selling these stones. There’s a small outside market and maybe as many as 50 small shops each full of ornate sculptures of dragons, tigers, Buddha and elaborate landscapes each carved from of Balin stone. According to the shop owner the price of the rock itself depends on the quality, which is dictated but the color, and the rocks texture. Balin stones are divided into many different kinds, the details of each I didn’t actually quite understand, but it seemed pretty interesting. The most expensive stones seem to be bright mono-color stones in oranges, yellows and greens and the cheaper over multi color grained stones. One shop owner told me that the market wasn’t very good at the moment, but when it was a couple of years ago, a good stone could double or triple in price in the space of a few years. (I’m still not sure whether this was all part of the sails pitch so perhaps its best to multiply all figures by 60%), he directed me to a couple of “good examples” both little bigger then a can of Coke, one he told me, which was carved into Buddah, would cost me around RMB20,000 the other orange and slightly larger RMB50,000. I’ve been quoted as much as RMB 150,000 for a similar sized stone, which was a color that was just that little bit less common. Good specimens of less common stones, I was told, both would always accumulate value well, and even in a poor market would likely increase by as much as 10% a year. More common stones would also keep their value, but when the market was down wouldn’t be such a good earner. 

When the shop owner realized that, RMB 50,000 was maybe a little out of my price range, he directed me to cheaper stones that could be used to carve into a name stamp. One example of a poorer quality stone of similar size would cost me around RMB 5000. Completely uncut stones seem also to come for any price, I was quoted anything from RMB 30 – 3000 for stones which to me were identical in size color and texture, but then who am I to know.

I understand the allure of the stones, they can lead to very good returns, if you have the right one and have enough time to let it accumulate value. As for whether it is a good use for a microcredit loan; many of the ventures that microloans are used to fund are long maturing investments, planting seeds for a harvest, or raising an animal. Repayments on a microloan are due after the first month, meaning in the mean time the borrower has to find other ways to generate money, the most common being trade of some sort. This perhaps isn’t an ideal situation but the staff at CZWSDA, our partner MFI, discuss their customers business plans and assess their situation before agree to loan them money and they will also instruct them on how they can generate income to make repayments whilst they wait for their investment to mature. In many ways investing in the stone market isn’t that different from waiting for a harvest or raising an animal, they all involve a long maturing investment which encompasses an element of risk.

Good Stones: RMB 50,000 – RMB 150,000 (the artists cut is also important of course)

Not such good stones: RMB 5000

Comments

[Casey Wilson]

I love your entry George! Thanks for clearing up the mystery of Balin stones! I had always figured that they were magic rocks, like the ones that you buy at the exploratorium and break to see if there is a precious gem inside...:-)

[Ben Hamilton]

George,
Courtney wants a life-size, balin stone sculpture of me to put next to her desk at work, can you help?
p.s. thanks for clearing that up, I was wondering what they were.

[George]

Ben, way ahead of you... I found the perfect seated Buddha and it's winging it's way to you as I type this, hope it's everything she dreamed of. I also saw a Dragon that bore a striking similarity to Sarah P.. (Can’t write the rest of the as were supposed to be nonpolitical) if she wants that too.