The largest amber deposit. Amber deposits. Is it possible for private individuals to mine in Russia?

Each ornamental stone has its own characteristics that determine its value and suitability for use. Amber was no exception. This fossil, called the “gift of the Sun” or “tears of the sea,” has attracted human attention since ancient times and remains in demand today. Therefore, amber mining is an important state task and is carried out at the level of industrial development.

Where is amber used and what qualities does it have?

Science believes that the stone in question is the frozen fossil resin of ancient coniferous plants. It is most often used to make jewelry, and is also used in the pharmaceutical, chemical and industrial sectors (succinic acid), and is in demand among electronics manufacturers (amber varnish, rosin).

Unlike precious and semi-precious minerals, amber is of organic origin, therefore, having a solid structure and attractive appearance, it has properties not inherent in other stones, which makes it unique. It can burn, changes color and density when heated or exposed to chemical reagents, and is capable of accumulating static voltage during friction (it becomes electrified). Some of these qualities are used when processing the source material.

Existing varieties of amber

There are several types of the mineral in question. Presumably, such diversity arose due to certain natural factors - the conditions of the formation (the nature of the relief, surrounding rocks), the time of its formation, the pressure acting on the deposit. As a result, the following types of amber appeared, differing both in degree of transparency and color:

• transparent - does not have any cloudy stains, cavities or bubbles of liquid or air in its structure;
• royal (the second name is “bone”) - white, completely opaque, very valued when making souvenirs;
• blue amber - called retinite or birmite in different sources - a rare variety with great hardness;
• cloudy/smoky – has minor bubble inclusions in the form of cloudy areas, which is why it is translucent;
• bastard - refers to opaque due to the large density of cavities;
• immature (“rotten”) – gedanite, has an earthy tint and contains less succinic acid than other types;
• foamy - got its name from its resemblance to foam due to the huge number of bubble inclusions;
• bare (“red”) – represented by nuggets with a reddish and sometimes cherry-colored surface.

A variety of green amber has been noted. This rare species is found during the development of brown coal or accompanied by iron (sulfur) pyrites. Most often, the blue and green shades of the stone are found during amber mining in the Dominican Republic, located in Central America.

Some fossil resin nuggets contain frozen insects (“inclusions”). Well-preserved inclusions, exceeding 1 cm in length, make the piece of amber in which they are found a precious stone. This decision was made by the Government of the Russian Federation in Resolution No. 8 of 1999.

Known large amber deposits

Amber development is carried out by many countries on most continents of the globe. North America, Africa, Eurasia, Australia - these continents are marked by the presence of an organic mineral in their territories. Among the states that extract it from their subsoil, we can note:

• Austria;
• Romania;
• Spain;
• Portugal;
• France;
• Japan;
• African countries.

The stone mined there is not of high quality, but has the necessary characteristics for use in jewelry and industrial applications.

Large amber deposits are located on the coast of the Baltic Sea, on the territory of Ukraine (Volyn region), and in the Dominican Republic. Although the latter does not claim to be the largest, it is from there that samples of amber in blue and green tones come.

In our country, deposits of valuable amber have been discovered in the Baltic, North Siberian, and Far Eastern regions. They are well explored and recognized as promising deposits. The most significant is the Palmniken amber deposit.

Its second name is Primorskoye. It is located on the territory of the former East Prussia, now these lands are part of the Kaliningrad Peninsula and belong to the Russian Federation. The reserves of fossil resin here amount to hundreds of thousands of tons, and its quality is high.

Placers of gems occur in sandy-clayey deposits that were previously the seabed. This soil is called “blue earth” and is very rich in valuable amber. For the extraction and processing of stone, a plant was built in the village of Yantarny, located 40 kilometers from Kaliningrad, which produces the majority (70%) of all volumes of “sun stone” sold in the world. The lion's share of raw materials is sold to foreign processors, the rest goes to the domestic market.

Considerable harm is caused to the state by the unofficial fishery for “tears of the sea”, which exists despite established prohibitions and attracts “illegal diggers” to its side. According to preliminary estimates alone, they extract more than 100 tons of amber per year, which is a significant loss.

A valuable mineral of organic origin is mined in different ways. The most ancient is its collection in places where nature brings it to the surface through the movement of water. For example, after a sea storm or high tide, you can easily find an amber nugget on the Baltic coast. There are people who engage in such a trade as collecting pieces of amber along the shore.

Subsequently, the collected amber is sold to private processors in handicraft workshops, where souvenirs or jewelry are made from the stone for subsequent sale and profit.

Mining amber from boats or catching it in underwater gear is considered more profitable. These are amateur methods, and industrial developments are carried out using powerful equipment using modern technologies.

Scooping method

The essence of this method is to use a net with a long handle, which is used to catch amber nuggets in bottom recesses. They approach promising areas by boat, after which they begin scooping with a net, collecting the contents of the bottom and sorting it out on the surface.

Quite often, when the instrument moves, stones, picked up by the turbulence of the water, rise on their own and become easy prey for seekers.

If the depth and transparency of the water make it possible to visually examine the nugget among the bottom stones, then it is separated from them using a lance or spear, and then removed with the main fishing gear.

This method of extracting amber is not equally successful. Sometimes the “catch” is significant, but failures often occur. Much depends on patience and the ability to wait.

Fishing by diving

The Baltic Sea cannot be called warm, so this method requires appropriate diving equipment. Another condition is that it is advisable to carry out the process in the dark. Fossil resin tends to reflect rays of light, so with the light of an underwater flashlight, its location can be determined by the reflections.

This method may be more productive than the previous one, but it is definitely more dangerous for the fishermen. In addition, diving is a seasonal exploration opportunity, and this season in the Baltic is very short.

Industrial extraction of amber

There are mine and quarry developments. The most profitable and low-cost method is considered to be the open-pit mining method, which is used on the Kaliningrad Peninsula. The whole process occurs in several stages:

• waste rock is removed using quarry excavators and powerful trucks;
• the next stage is the extraction of “blue earth” and its formation into cone-shaped embankments;
• further, under the influence of hydromonitors, the total mass is crushed, washed and gems are separated from it;
• The final stage of extraction is cleaning the amber from rock impurities, sorting it and sending it for processing.

All of the above stages take place at the plant in the village of Yantarny. There are also art workshops where large specimens of amber stone are used to make figurines and valuable souvenirs.

“Today we bury a diver”

How “black diggers” mine amber in the Kaliningrad region

Alexander Chernyshev

Divers, miners, net catchers, water throwers - although each of them has their own technologies, equipment and scale, they all have one thing in common: the desire to make money from collecting, illegally mining and selling amber. Some manage to hit the jackpot, others face large fines, and some die. A RIA Novosti correspondent went to the Kaliningrad region to find out who is risking their lives and why for the sake of a mineral of organic origin.

“Thank you for not stealing anything. Diver - at the bottom"

The name of the village of Yantarny in the Kaliningrad region speaks for itself. The sun stone has always been hunted here - by the Teutonic knights, the Germans, and after the war by Russian settlers. No wonder: the region contains 90 percent of the world's amber reserves.

Today, the plant in Yantarny, which legally mines and processes the mineral, is the main enterprise in the region, employing almost 600 people.

However, the lives of those who did not have enough space at the plant are also connected with amber. Even on the desk at the receptionist of the hotel where we checked in, there were hundreds of yellow and red beads laid out. Squinting, she threads them onto a thread and ties them into a bracelet. “Why waste time? This way the working day flies by faster, and a penny isn’t too much. You go to any store or visit anyone - all the girls work part-time. And the men dive for a stone. Today we are burying one - it was covered with clay under water,” sighs a resident of the village.

But we decided not to go shopping, but to go on a raid with the department for combating illegal amber trafficking of the Kaliningrad Ministry of Internal Affairs and SOBR. The meeting point is the coastal village of Kostrovo.

Early in the morning, with flashing lights and a siren, we move towards Yantarny, to the so-called bank - a place especially rich in underwater deposits of amber.

There are already a dozen boats on the water. To our surprise, no one was scared when they saw the police. Operatives ask people in diving suits to raise the engine. Having made sure that this is an ordinary screw, we go to others - the same story with them, although many of them have pieces of yellow stone in their nets. Some boats are completely empty, just a note: “Thank you for not stealing anything. The diver is working at the bottom.”

“It seems that the locals copied us and warned their own. There is no one to detain here. Divers who erode the bottom are subject to administrative fines for illegal amber mining. These boats have a water jet engine. A special mechanism is connected to it: one part of it breaks the clay with water pressure, exposing the stone, the other part is sucked in like a vacuum cleaner. Now there are only collectors looking for amber on the surface of the bottom - this is allowed. However, the subsequent sale of “raw” (unprocessed stone. - Ed.) is illegal. But any diver will say that he is collecting a mineral for a collection,” explains the employee.

Cossack robbers

We set off for Zelenogradsk, a town by the sea in the north of the region. Having gone off-road, we see hundreds of stepped pits about ten meters deep on the sides. It looks like the craters of a volcano, but all this is the work of man.

© Photo: provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kaliningrad region

Silhouettes quickly receding in the fog distract from the mesmerizing spectacle. The car slows down sharply, and the operatives give chase. However, the prospectors manage to escape along paths known only to them. The water in one of the pits is still swaying; there are ladders on the sides.

In a hurry, the “hooves” abandoned tools, food supplies and a bucket of amber - just a minute ago the work was in full swing.

“We didn’t even talk. “No ethics,” the employee sneers, showing off the hose he found. Water was pumped through it from dug ditches, breaking up the “blue clay” where amber was hidden. Next to the giant pits there are small wells: they are washed away from the inside, running water through long metal pipes immersed in the ground. True, due to regular police raids, miners now increasingly prefer simple shovels - it’s not so offensive to part with them when confiscated.

Today, law enforcement officers are out of luck, but not all of their operations are unsuccessful. “On November 7, in the same area, riot police detained three “hoofs,” cases have already been opened. Before this, the SOBR team pretended to be fishermen: they picked up fishing rods and approached the unsuspecting “water gunners” in a simple boat. Four were detained. Equipment and boats were confiscated. Violators were fined 200 thousand,” says Yuri Aldoshkin, head of the department for combating illegal amber trafficking.

The operatives know many of the prospectors by sight, but they need to be caught red-handed. “So we play Cossack robbers: either we’ll set up an ambush at night, or we’ll pretend to be ‘hoofs’ ourselves,” he continues.

There are fewer and fewer craftsmen: previously the fine for citizens was only up to five thousand, since December 2017 - from 200 to 500 thousand: taking risks is no longer so profitable.

In just one year, the court reviewed fines totaling about 13 million rubles.The government has now developed a bill that would criminalize illegal mining of semi-precious stones.

Pirate Tatiana

The Yantarny Coast is one of two places in Russia that have been awarded the Blue Flag, which is awarded to the best beaches in the world. Surprisingly, the resort owes its existence to the plant: 15 years ago, quarries were developed here, and waste rock was dumped into the sea - and so the beach area grew. They decided to move the quarries to the west, and those that were here were razed to the ground by the winds.

People are walking along the shore, although the beach season is long over, everyone is looking at their feet. These are mainly tourists who decided to look for pebbles for fun.

“Well, did you find anything?” - a female voice calls out to us. My new friend's name is Tatyana.

And she is a real amber pirate: she has a vest-colored hood on her head, earrings in her ears, and sunstone beads on her neck. In his hands is a device resembling a fishing net.

However, she is not interested in fish. “It’s more convenient to go for amber with a net than with a net—it’s more compact. November is the most suitable month, but today there is nothing to catch here: there has been no storm for a long time, and it raises a stone from the bottom. Even better are the exercises of the Baltic Fleet: they muddle the clay well. Then the southwest wind brings the amber, entangled in algae, closer to the shore. This is where the net should be aimed. If you want, try quitting,” Tatyana suggests and hands over the device.

After several clumsy attempts to throw the tackle into the sea, I shyly return the empty net and continue asking questions. It turns out that Tatyana lives in Yeisk - she stopped by to visit her grandchildren and look for “yantarik”.

“I visit often. During this month, I collected eight kilograms of “raw” meat. I take it to a local recycler. He makes preparations. Then I send the goods to my home by Russian Post, but they might take it away on the train. The main thing is to seal the parcel well: one day, instead of amber, I found tomato paste of the same weight inside.

In Yeisk, I collect beads, bracelets, rosaries, necklaces from blanks and sell them secondhand - this summer I sold for 237 thousand, about a quarter of this amount is expenses,” says the interlocutor.

She first came to Yantarny in 1990 and worked at the plant for some time. “I remember there lived a dog named King Kong at the quarry. When thieves broke in at night, she quietly ran to the policeman sleeping in a booth nearby and pulled him with her teeth by the hem of his overcoat to the crime scene. Unexpected guests always took something edible with them, and upon arrest, the police took away the food and rewarded the dog for its service. After one such dinner, the dog died - it was poisoned. It’s a pity, although let’s be honest, I myself was “on the lookout” while the men were climbing behind the stone at night. The spoils were divided equally,” admits Tatyana. She puts her hands to her mouth and demonstrates her signature whistle - a signal of danger.

Finally, he shows his talisman - an amber pebble in the form of a drop: “Apparently, a drop of resin from an ancient tree fell not onto the ground, but into a puddle, so it retained its shape. A rare specimen."

“We’re standing in the trash, working”

A chimney from an amber plant comes out to the shore several kilometers west of the beach, throwing out waste from mining - pulp, empty clay with water.

The company’s workers are not always able to catch all the amber, and sometimes the pipe “spits” amber along with the pulp.

There's always a buzz here. Right under the roaring chimney we found 12 people with nets in raincoats and high boots.

“Everyone is hoping for the jackpot. The plant does not hire locals for mining: it considers them to be thieves. So we’re standing in their trash can, catching a stone. Previously, large pieces were thrown out, but a year ago they put traps on the pipe. Now there is one little thing that comes across. We earn a maximum of 50 thousand a month,” says the unshaven “net catcher” Vitaly and demonstrates a pebble weighing no more than five grams - all the catch in a day.

A little further away, five more people stand in a semicircle. They don’t answer questions, they frown straight into your eyes. According to rumors, these are local bandits who sell places near the pipe: the closer, the more expensive. Perhaps Vitaly is a little cunning - and there is still something to profit from here.

“I didn’t intend to die”

From the pipe, in ten minutes on foot you can reach the “slip” - the place from where boats with divers launch. Due to the abundance of divers, paid parking was recently opened here. True, the police still fine cars for going to the beach, but there is no other way to launch the boat. Although the most desperate people do not need a watercraft at all - they get to the place from land with fins or with the help of a tow, but there are only a few of them.

On the shore there are jeeps with trailers. Boats, like ghosts, appear one after another from the thick fog. Most are already leaving - their working day begins early in the morning.

Amber has no practical use. Despite its good flammability, it is used exclusively in areas that are useful to people for social reasons: decoration, aroma (when burned), furniture and haberdashery accessories. In addition, the mineral has a very interesting history. The name comes from Arab culture, and - in fact - from the first studies of its deposits. The peoples of the south believed that amber was the result of crystallization of dew. Despite the lack of scientific evidence, the theory was indirectly tied to the truth.

The fact is that amber is really the result of solidification of a liquid. Only not dew, but resin from coniferous trees that existed for a very long time. The scientific basis for this was confirmed only in the 18th century by the Russian explorer and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.

In science fiction, amber was seen as a unique way to find the DNA of ancient creatures. So in the novel by Michael Crichton, scientists who found an inclusion (an amber rock with an insect stuck inside) used dinosaur blood, which mosquitoes fed on, in order to obtain DNA for cloning prehistoric creatures. According to ancient beliefs, amber is fragments of stones from the center of the world, where the throne of the world kingdom stands.

Deposits in the world and Russia

Historically, deposits of this stone were located in places that were partially (or completely) washed by water. Until the middle of the Iron Age, “tears of the sea” were mined on the Jutland Peninsula (in modern times this is the territory of Denmark). Then the search moved to another place, where one of the largest areas for the extraction of this raw material was born, and the gift of the sun continues to be mined in the same areas to this day.

The territory of Sambia became a famous deposit (now part of the Kaliningrad region), where many amber deposits were found. In those ancient times, it was considered an island, which also played in favor of the name “tears of the sea.” According to historical sources, it can be judged that the Romans, who had a colony on the Amber Coast, mined sparkling stones there.

Despite the obvious belonging to the jewelry business and the comparative high cost of some amber products, the stone is not something extremely valuable. Although, in comparison with other minerals, it can cost buyers a considerable amount.

This is due to a large number of parameters, including their relatively simple extraction, and such a large number of deposits. On every continent there are places where tears of the sea are found.

In general, all areas where amber mining is carried out are divided into two large provinces:

1. Eurasian (the largest deposits are here).
2. American.

Depending on the nature of the resins, climate and other natural phenomena, these provinces are distinguished by different ambers. Most of it is yellow-orange, but green and sometimes even blue amber are also common. Red amber has been found in Spain and South Africa.

The largest amber deposits are located in Russia. It is in the Kaliningrad region that the largest territory of amber manifestations has been created. Over 500 tons of gems are mined here per year. Then, when all over the world the number of raw materials mined is approximately 800 tons.

The Baltic countries and Eastern Europe occupy second places in amber production.

Poland, for example, increases the weight of extracted materials to 5-10 tons per year. Which is almost 100 times less than what is mined in the Kaliningrad region.

Ural gems

There are places in the world where various resources are often found, rocks rich in precious minerals. A similar case happened with the Urals, where over the course of years of research, and sometimes just everyday experiments and accidents, various minerals, iron and ores were found. This is one of the richest regions in Russia.

It is also rich in ponds and rivers. Obviously, in ancient years, amber was washed out from the roots of trees, and could end up anywhere, all over the world. That is why there are now so many different small deposits of this value. But the Urals, despite its productivity in mineral extraction, are not rich in amber. Among sea stones, iron ores and other resources, some found pebbles that looked like amber in all respects. But no large deposits were ever discovered in that region.

Many finds were made in 1960-70. This indicates that the deposits of the gifts of the sun were not there as deposits, but simply by chance, back in ancient times, they came from other places, washed out by changes and the flow of underwater rivers.

But for geologists and researchers there is still a reason to search for large deposits of the stones that interest them. The Ural region is rich in various raw materials, and amber is often found in the most unpredictable places. Maybe in the future the search for amber in the Urals will be crowned with success.

Amber mining process

The earth is rich in this gem, which is why it is found all over the world. But especially large deposits are singled out for a reason.

There are not many places where you can find amber. They are looking for him:

1. In the "blue land".
2. On beaches, dry ponds.
3. In large accumulations of gravel, zinc.

Despite this small variety, amber is very actively mined. This is good business, especially if the deposit is large. But even today, almost two hundred years later, since people began to mine gems for commercial purposes, the technology has hardly changed. There has been more modern equipment, motor boats, and digging machines, but the main work still remains manual.

Amber is a very fragile mineral, so there is no point in trusting machines to find and process it.

Over the past two centuries, on the beaches and shallow waters where amber is mined, over 60 million tons of amber have been collected by the hands of seekers. But this is a very limited way of searching, since there is almost no amber in these places, and it is almost impossible to find it just walking along the beach. Therefore, people stepped further and began catching the tears of the sea.

It was enough to understand that since amber is brought to the shore by sea waters, then somewhere in the depths there probably also remained those stones that for some reason did not reach the shore. To extract amber from the sea, special nets (4-6 m long) were used, with the help of which they looked for amber stuck in sea debris and algae. This method still exists, but it is usually combined with others.

The largest deposit of amber is located in the so-called “blue lands”: the name does not come from the color of the amber that is found there (usually green shades). This is a rock that contains a lot of sandy material mixed with clay particles.

There is also a lot of quartz and zinc present here, which often becomes a signal of the presence of amber. Deposits of this kind provide a large amount of raw materials, and the method of such extraction is considered the most rational. To do this, they dig large quarries (often up to 30 meters deep), with the help of powerful water pressure - the unnecessary is washed away, and “blue earth” remains.

After washing and sorting, amber is extracted from the blue earth. The found gemstone is sent to laboratories for study and processing, and then it goes to factories and factories. There it is given the desired shape.

After all, amber does not always look like it does on the shelves of jewelry stores. Yes, it is very often smooth because it has been washed with water for many years. But its shape, as a rule, is unnatural and uneven. It is the job of the jeweler to process the stone so that it matches this or that piece of jewelry.

The largest amber deposits are located in the Baltic region. This is where a large amber quarry is located, known throughout the world. It was he who made the Kaliningrad region the center of extraction of this beautiful gem. The village of Yantarny (formerly known as Palmniken) has become the site of the world's largest amber plant, where amber mining continues unabated.

Amber is a fossil resin from ancient coniferous plantations. Over time, the resinous formations fossilized, became hard enough to withstand external destruction, and many of them grew into sedimentary rocks and are found as inclusions in stones. Amber has been known to man for as long as people themselves have existed on Earth. It is found at archaeological excavations of the settlements of primitive people.

This light and beautiful stone was given a magical meaning; different tribes considered it to be pieces of the Sun that fell to the ground, they used it to treat ailments, bewitched with the help of jewelry made from it, and cast spells on it. All this still exists to one degree or another, but the main purpose of this organic material is industry, medicine, electronics, and jewelry.

Ancient methods of extracting amber

Usually people collected pieces of resin on the seashore. Sea waves often washed them onto beaches, and small fragments were found in large numbers on coastlines around the world. But over time, there were more and more hunters for amber fragments and people had to catch them from the water by boat. This type of fishing was called “scooping”, since resin formations were caught with nets. To get to larger pieces, “pricking” was used. This was done using sharpened peaks in shallow water. And when the deposits at shallow depths dried up, the time came for “wells”—digs that were located on the beach area. In the 16th century, the first shallow quarries appeared and stone mining became industrial.

Modern technologies for amber extraction

Currently, amber is being mined in large quantities; large companies are doing this and using mechanized extraction methods; this work has several stages.

Development of hydraulic monitor and dredging devices

This method is the main one and involves the impact of a powerful water jet on the overburden (the coating that covers the amber-bearing layer).

Water, together with waste rock, forms a pulp, which is discharged into the sea through pipes using dredging devices.

The exposed “blue earth” is being mined with a walking excavator. With the help of a ladle, this mass, rich in amber content, is folded into conical slides and the hydraulic monitor begins to work again, turning this slide into a mud-like slurry.

This slurry is transported by dredges through a pipe system to the processing plant. While passing through these production stages, precious raw materials are subject to losses - 10 percent of the material is lost in this method.

Experts believe that the optimal extraction option is a method that excludes hydrotransportation. Technically, this is done like this: a multi-bucket excavator selects the “blue earth” in the quarry and delivers it to the conveyor. According to it, all the rock with its contents goes to the processing plant, where amber inclusions are extracted without loss.

The final stage of extraction is sorting the fragments by size, color, inclusion content, transparency, and configuration.

Why can amber be colored?

Resin fossilized in sedimentary rocks can take on the color of surrounding minerals. Therefore, amber is not only yellow and golden in color, it can have different shades - green, brown, blue and even white. According to the refraction of light, pebbles are divided into transparent, opaque, and smoky.

Main places of amber mining

The main places where amber is mined are the Baltic states, the Kaliningrad region, Western Ukraine, and the Urals. There are deposits in Mexico, Japan, China, Romania and Sicily. But the main area where large deposits occur is the coast of the Baltic Sea. These stones are sold for export; their quality is valued all over the world. The remaining deposits are of no industrial importance.

If you find an error, please select a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

What is amber

Amber has been known to people for many centuries. It is lovingly called “a gift from the sun” and “a tear of the deep sea.” Philologists believe that the stone got its name from the Arabic language and is translated as hardened dew that fell from the sky. In Germany it was called a combustible stone, because it easily ignites, in Greece it was called radiant.

Mineralogists have established that the tear of the deep sea is a gem of organic origin, that is, it appeared as a result of the vital activity of living organisms. A small number of states have amber deposits.

Properties of amber

Hardened dew that fell from the sky is a beautiful stone. But it can not only please the eye, but also heal. Lithotherapists know that a gem can:

• relieve headaches;
• stabilize the condition of weather-dependent people during magnetic storms;
• improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
• have a positive effect on the state of the cardiovascular system;
• cure joint diseases.

Constantly wearing amber beads enhances the effect of medications in case of dysfunction of the thyroid gland. A tincture of semi-precious stones helps get rid of colds and respiratory diseases. Plates of the mineral are placed on the temples during migraine attacks, the pain goes away.

Psychics, when performing rituals that allow them to look into the future, always use amber balls or pyramids. These magical items enhance energy many times over and allow you to quickly get answers to the questions you need.

Origin of amber

Scientists claim that the organic mineral is the fossilized resin of ancient trees that grew on Earth more than fifty million years ago. These sticky secretions often contained insects, small animals, leaves, and twigs. They remained in a piece of resin and froze together with it. Now there are quite a lot of copies with such content. They are exclusive pieces and are highly valued by collectors.

Where and how is amber mined?

Amber mining is carried out on the territory of several countries:

There are deposits of the “gift of the sun” on the island of Sicily, Japan, Poland, and the Republic of Australia.

To the question: “How is amber mined?”, geologists answer this way. The method of extracting a mineral from the bowels of the earth depends on where it is located. It happens:

1. Underwater - when hardened dew that fell from the sky is present in the soil layers located in bodies of water. First, the top layer of soil is removed using a powerful hydraulic monitor. The soil underneath is transported through a pipeline to the processing plant, where workers manually search for amber.
2. Ground - if the gems are hidden in the depths of the land. Then a pit is dug out and the earth is taken out of it. After dividing it into stones and soil, amber is isolated from the first component.
3. Sea - a layer of sand is removed from the bottom of the sea using dredges. And then combustible stone is extracted from the lower layers.

In all cases, organic minerals must be extracted using modern technology. Sometimes mining is carried out in an artisanal way. How this is done in Poland can be seen in the video.

Large amber deposits

Where is amber mined on Earth? There are several large deposits of semi-precious stone:

Illegal mining

Amber mining is also carried out by black geologists. They use an excavator to remove the top layer of soil. Then the amber is caught using special nets.

Sometimes they collect discarded minerals on the beaches or dive to the bottom for them.

Areas of application of amber

Radiant gems are used in several areas. They are made from:

• interior items (vases, ashtrays, decorative figurines);
• Jewelry;
• mosaic paintings and icons.

Sometimes boxes and various surfaces inside living spaces are encrusted with radiant gemstones. And low-quality specimens are used in the chemical industry to create acids and rosins. They, in turn, are required in the perfumery, pharmaceutical, and paint and varnish industries.

Mineralogists distinguish several varieties of radiant gems depending on color and degree of transparency:

• transparent specimens that do not have any inclusions or defects inside;
• royal (bone) - tears of the deep sea are white and opaque;
• blue – samples with high hardness;
• smoky (cloudy) - translucent minerals with cloudy, bubbly inclusions;
• bastard amber - an opaque stone;
• unripe (rotten) samples of an earthy color with a small content of succinic acid;
• foamy - having a huge number of interspersed bubbles;
• red – gems with a reddish or cherry-colored surface;
• green specimens, which are very rare in nature;
• gedanites are translucent, brown stones that are mined in the area near the city of Gdansk;
• black – infrequently encountered specimens.

Amber jewelry

Jewelers create various jewelry from amber:

Any jewelry with amber will have a beneficial effect on the general condition of its owner.

Price

The cost of amber jewelry depends on the quality, size of the gems and the material from which the frame is made. Typically, 1 carat of natural stone is valued at $5 to $15.

Beads 60 centimeters long cost around 4,000 rubles. Braided bracelet - from 500 to 900, silver pendant -1500-2000, gold earrings -15000, men's cufflinks -2000-2500 rubles.

Industrial mining of amber is not carried out in many countries.

Important information

Illegal methods of amber removal flourish almost everywhere. Often, black geologists cause irreparable harm to nature. Then gems without certificates are used by unscrupulous craftsmen. They do not guarantee the quality of the minerals.

If a person wants to own amber jewelry, then the purchase should be made in a reputable jewelry store. And be sure to require a document confirming the legality of mining. Only in this case can you buy truly high-quality jewelry.

Interesting video: What is amber?