Betroka
Betroka is a town and region of about 112 km² with an approximate population of 12,000. The town lies on the N13 national route in the Tulear region of southern Madagascar. A small airfield suitable only for light aircraft is located close to town.
The area is part of the Betroka-Beraketa shear belt, a tectonic structure rich in minerals and gemstones. Deposit here have produced some of the finest color kornerupine stones, an increasing popular gemstone, which in the spiritual world is considered a teaching and communication stone, thought to stabilise emotional swings of manic-depressives and assists seeing through false agreements in one's current reality.... Other minerals in the area include plagioclase gneisses with two-pyroxenes, leptinitic gneiss with garnet, sillimanite and cordierite, quartzites, metapelites with cordierite-orthopyroxene-garnet-plagioclase, with spinel and sapphirine, calc silicate.