About us

A family company

Amethyst was in the family before the company.

Le Stage Minerals is a family company from Artigas. Three generations of the Sanchis family have worked the stone: from the grandfather's land to the father's workshop, and from the workshop to a company that today extracts, works and exports amethyst worldwide, led by Carlos Sanchis.

The family story

1930–1940

In the 1930s and 1940s, Carlos Sanchis's grandfather extracted amethyst on his land in Artigas and sold it to the German buyers who at the time took Uruguayan stone to workshops in Europe. One of them called him “the king of amethyst.”
Kato

Arlindo “Kato” Sanchis, Carlos's father, worked with stone all his life. In the morning he went to the courthouse, in the afternoon to the quarry, and at night to the workshop he had set up behind his house, where agates were cut, polished and turned into pieces sold across the country.
He was one of the first in Artigas to work a quarry with machinery. He brought his first backhoe from the border himself, driving it for the first time, through a storm that did not let up the whole way.
Kato died on August 11, 2025. His voice and his memories are part of the book that tells the mining history of Artigas.
A childhood among stones

Carlos grew up watching rough stone become a finished piece. In the workshop behind the house, his father cut, polished and finished them by hand. Outside his bedroom window, the drums where the agates were tumbled turned without stopping. He learned the trade before he knew it would be his.
2000

In the 1990s, synthetic gems brought down the market for jewelry-grade amethyst, and all of Artigas felt it. In 2000, Carlos decided to commit to the stone: he took over a quarry that others considered exhausted and learned hard-rock work from scratch.
2003

Le Stage Minerals was founded in 2003. The company made its name at the industry's international fairs.
2009

Carlos Sanchis has led the company since 2009.
2026

Le Stage Minerals leaves explosives behind. We are pioneers worldwide in extracting amethyst at industrial scale without explosives.

“A person's or a company's greatest asset is their name. If you lose money, you can earn it back. If you lose your name, you can't.”

Carlos Sanchis

That idea, which he inherited from his father, shapes the way Le Stage Minerals works: a promise is kept, even when it costs.

Le Stage today

According to data from Uruguay XXI (opens in a new tab), the country's export promotion agency, Le Stage Minerals was Uruguay's leading exporter of precious stones in 2025.

Le Stage Minerals extracts, selects, finishes and exports amethyst from Los Catalanes, Artigas, Uruguay.

Carlos Sanchis leads Le Stage Minerals together with a team that follows the stone from its origin to its preparation for market.

Where we work

Le Stage Minerals works in the heart of the Los Catalanes district, in quarries where amethyst has been extracted for generations. Santiño yields the large pieces. Catalán Seco yields the best-quality agate. Amethyst extraction moves forward one quarry at a time, with the same equipment traveling from one to the next.

The whole process, in Artigas

Le Stage Minerals has its own industrial park in Artigas, with cutting, polishing and packing areas, warehouses and machine shops. It has the equipment to move its heavy machinery and to handle pieces weighing many tons without depending on anyone else.

Behind every piece is a team of more than 300 people: at the quarry, in the workshop, in selection and in export.

Origin

We are there when the stone appears.

About Origin →

Judgment

We recognize what we are looking at and what deserves to be preserved or revealed.

Learn to read an amethyst →

Craft

We take every piece that needs it to a well-resolved finish and presentation.

About Specimen Design →