A method for extracting amber in Belarus. Amber deposits in the Brest region attract "black diggers". Day after day does not come

What is amber, how this sunstone is mined - these are important questions, and even state significance... Especially for some countries - suppliers of sun stone, where amber mining is regulated by law. The interest of the high level is explained by the profitability of the industry. This is not only the sphere of jewelry, the mineral has valuable medical and technical properties.

People have been mining gem since ancient times. And for a very long time the craft was spontaneous. This continued until the 18th century, when the Teutonic Order introduced monopoly rights to the search and processing of the gem. This is how the basics of amber production were born, which, although it is conducted in different parts of the world, is concentrated in the Baltic region.

Types of amber deposits

There are many places in the world where amber is mined. Almost all of them are poorly studied, except for Primorskoe - this is the largest amber deposit in Russia. The nature of the origin of many amber-bearing areas is still unclear. Mineralogists divide them into primary (formed in the once forest area) and secondary (placers).

Of the primary today, one can call Fushunskoye in China, plots on Far East and the development of amber in Alaska (USA), in Canada, in Austria. Large pieces of the mineral have never been found here, so this type of mining site is not of industrial importance.

Placers (secondary deposits) differ in that they are remote, and sometimes significantly from the area of ​​their initial occurrence. After all, the mineral is unique in its density (more than 1.0) and buoyancy in water. Therefore, there are accumulations of gem on the rivers of Alaska, at the foot of the relief in Germany, Russia, on the Dnieper.

The largest placer of the mineral is a deposit from the Baltic to the Curonian Spit, which is located 4-15 m below sea level; the concentration of amber here is 0.2 kg / m2. During storm events, secondary deposits are eroded, and the raging Baltic Sea throws marine amber onto the shores. For example, in Latvia this type of gem production is the base of the amber industry.

Jpg "alt =" (! LANG: amber kiscellite" width="270" height="267">!} Gem reserves that lie deep underground are also considered secondary. This phenomenon is observed in Belarus, in the Gomel and Brest regions. People digging peat by hand and find a sunstone. This even provoked an "amber fever" among the local population with the consequences of black fishing and illegal use of amber veins.

Modern coastal-marine placers are widespread along the coast not only Baltic Sea, but also other seas and oceans (Mediterranean, Black, Arctic Ocean). Some of them contain the mineral "glauconite" in the sedimentary rock, which gives the amber-bearing layers a turquoise hue, from which the name "blue earth" was born.

Such deposits of amber are widespread mainly in the Baltic-Dnieper province, stretching from the line North Sea through Denmark, Germany, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. And among the ways in which amber is mined, the technology of washing the blue earth is popular today.

The world's top gem suppliers

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Amber reserves on the planet are usually characterized by three types of gem: Baltic amber, Caribbean and cave amber. The last species is a man-made heritage from a gem, which came from distant ancestors-craftsmen. Archaeological excavations, point finds in ancient caves, decoration and accompaniment of cult burials often become a source of amber products and unique stone samples. The situation is different with the Baltic and Caribbean gems, their origin is indicated by the "geographical" names themselves.

Baltic amber

This stone, mainly its variety - succinite, comes from the Baltic countries. The industrial scale, which provided the predominant share of the world's reserves of the mineral (up to 90%), was acquired by its mining in the Kaliningrad region, in Russia. Since 1947, a specialized JSC "Kaliningrad Amber Plant" has been operating here, which controls the work of the largest open-pit mines created on the basis of the oldest deposit in the world - Palmikenskoye.

The names of the Kaliningrad settlements of Filino, Yantarny, Sinyavino are firmly associated with connoisseurs with the homeland of the sun stone. A Russian gem of Baltic origin is recognized as the best jewelry amber raw material in terms of size and quality.

Caribbean amber

It is often called Dominican. This stone is mined in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Caribbean gives the world 300 kg a year. Moreover, the gem was obtained mainly by manual labor.

Dominican amber has its own value, it is the only place in the world where you can find amber with unique inclusions - various reptiles (ancient frogs, lizards), which are perfectly visible through the transparent texture of the mineral. The Baltic gem loses a little here: the fauna of its inclusions is insects. Also, the Dominican stone is blue, quite rare in the amber palette.

These are the main regions and their deposits. Countries that are less rich in minerals can supplement the map with amber. These are Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Italy (Sicily), USA, Germany, Japan, Canada, Romania, Poland, Myanmar.

From landing net to hydromechanics: how amber is mined

From the moment ancient man I saw under my feet a noticeable golden-honey pebble, a lot of sea ​​waters... And with them and amber placers. So people began to understand how to look for amber. In their hands nets appeared, with which the gem was fished out of the tangle of algae from deep sea... They were replaced by lances and devices with which they harrowed the bottom. A floating gem appeared on the surface, and dexterous miners reaped the "harvest".

The 17th century is a progressive period in the field of gem mining. The first mines and quarry prototypes appear. And although these methods turned out to be unprofitable, the foundations of industrial mining were laid, which received great development in the twentieth century. Nowadays, the ways how to find amber deposits have a scientific and technical basis. And the process itself is divided into several stages:

1. The top layer of soil is cut off with an excavator bucket.
2. The removed rock is placed in special separating machines.
3. Loose sediments are screened out.
4. The remaining stones are sorted by hand, the amber is separated from the rest.

But the most advanced method today is hydromechanical. The upper, "empty" layer of soil is dumped into the sea by a powerful hydro-monitor, and the next layer containing minerals is immersed in the pipeline and fed to the processing plant. Further, the procedure for the selection of minerals and amber is carried out as described above.

Sun Gem is time consuming to mine. But, as the experience of eras shows, a person is weak in front of the magic of stones and metal. The amber rush, like the gold rush, continues. And people will look for new ways to discover new amber treasures of nature.

A Belarusian sun stone is taken out of a swamp near the village of Barantsy, Zhabinka district, Brest region. Here is one of the 22 deposits explored in previous years at the Gatch-Osovsky amber occurrence. According to geological prospecting data, up to 2.5 tons of valuable petrified resin rests on the pilot site, where trial operation is underway.

It takes about 10 minutes off-road from Barantsov to deposit No. 2. The most difficult section is the last 500 meters to the swamp. Here you have to either walk or drive a decommissioned fire engine "Gas-66". The workers say that the Niva can also pass, but this is not certain. Nearby is a narrow-gauge Railway that leads from nowhere to nowhere. She is here for the future: if "the amber tramples."

"Shishiga" stops near the guard's booth. There is a motor boat at the makeshift dock. The ship delivers workers and geologists through the swamp to the platform, on which the trial mining of the Belarusian sun stone is underway. Previously, only black diggers operated here, now it is a contractor firm.

The area of ​​the deposit, on which the trial operation is being carried out, is 19,800 sq. m. On the pilot site of the Gatch-Osovsky bog massif 22 deposits have been identified and explored. According to the project, they contain 2.5 tons of amber. In the developed deposit No. 2, the reserves are 345 kg.

- The depth of the amber according to the project is up to four meters. According to the results of our geological exploration - up to six meters. The conditions are difficult - it's still a swamp. The deposit is uneven, extremely unstable along strike and depth. There are empty spaces, there are areas in which there is a high concentration. This indicates that these are Quaternary deposits - amber came here with glaciers and a donkey in swamps. This is an extremely difficult field. The concentration of amber per ton of the host rock fluctuates: here, for example, 100 grams of amber per ton, and after five meters it may already be 0 grams per ton, - explains the director of LLC Belgeopoisk Oleg Pivovarchik.

Pump - Italian, pontoons - military, cab from the combine

With the representatives of the contractor company, we board the boat and go to the platform. Outwardly, it resembles a huge amphibious harvester, which is bogged down in a swamp by the cabin. In the front there is a control panel for an Italian submersible pump for 50 thousand euros. Behind - a bucket for loosening peat.

- The installation was created on the basis of a Dragflow submersible pump, Italy. To separate the sand from the coarse fraction and sort the amber, nets were bought. Power plant UES 2250 (harvester - TUT.BY) manufactured by Gomselmash. Pontoons are military. In a heap all this had to be collected by ourselves and adjusted to work, - recalls the representative of the contractor company Pavel Baltsevich.

The pump descends to a depth and sucks in the amber-bearing rock. Then the mass is fed through a slurry line to a sieve with a four-millimeter gap.

- Everything that is less than four millimeters: sand, water - goes away. The rest goes to the conveyor belt, where the manual bulkhead passes. In this deposit, according to the design and estimate documentation, we have to wash 56 thousand cubic meters breed. The fraction of amber-bearing rock over 4 mm is approximately 20%. Geologists sort out peat together with workers and select amber. We tried many methods, but only this one allowed us to significantly increase productivity, - explained Oleg Anatolyevich.

Geologists work at the deposits on a rotational basis: two weeks in two. At the end of the working day, they take the mined stones from the platform, take them to the guard wagon, where they place them in a transparent bag and seal them. Then they will be sent to specialists in Minsk for examination and assessment.

- We take samples, fix the depth of occurrence, in which rocks. Our geological information is then logged, documented and used in reserve approvals. While we are conducting a pilot operation of the deposit in order to assess the prospects for industrial production of amber, - said the senior geologist of LLC "Belgeopoisk" Alexey Anisko.

“Our stone is very dense. Kaliningrad - transparent "

Over the last eight days of work, we managed to collect 18 transparent bags with amber. The total weight of the mined is 13 kg. The largest fraction is 10 centimeters across and about 100 grams of weight. According to experts, on the market such a copy can cost more than $ 1,000.

- We can say that we went down in history. The first amber was smaller, and then the fractions went larger, - said Oleksiy Anisko. - Our amber has a very diverse range of colors, unlike Kaliningrad amber. They are mostly honey-colored, while ours range from honey to lemon, cherry, pomegranate. A variety of shades and colors are highly prized in the jewelry industry.

In support of the words of the senior geologist, the investor's representative Vladimir Mayuk took amber and illuminated it with a flashlight:

- Our stone is very dense. Kaliningrad is transparent. We have no cracks, chips and are completely translucent. Look at what color. We have a dark color, pomegranate, even with a white splash. The stone has its own characteristics. It is more colorful - more suitable for jewelry.

In Belarus, amber deposits are not primary, but Quaternary, emphasizes Aleksey Anisko. The sun stone was brought to us by glaciers.

- Until now, scientists argue where they were brought from: from the territory of modern Ukraine or the Kaliningrad region.

"A variant of using Belarusian amber for the jewelry industry is being developed"

So far, the task of the Belarusian specialists is to conduct test production and determine. to what extent our locations are suitable for such works.

- In order to understand the feasibility of mining, it is necessary to conduct geological exploration in order to understand the extractability of amber from the rock and to make an economic and geological assessment. Determine whether industrial production is needed or production by an artel method - that is, to develop deposits in small areas. In addition, you need to understand what kind of amber we have in Belarus - what size, grade, structure it has, ”said Oleg Pivovarchik.

All collected material will be submitted to experts for evaluation.

- The tasks of expanding such works can be carried out when the economic feasibility of extraction is determined. But even these samples show that Belarus has valuable raw materials. Now we need to solve the issues of its quality, cost and implementation. And also - the problem of creating a unified system in the country that would make it possible to extract these raw materials and sell them, - says the deputy general director of Belzarubezhtorg Andrey Kovkhuto.

For the European Union, we are not only economic partners... Belarus is also a security border. Illegals, drug trafficking ... It seems that our border guards have already learned to identify and suppress all this crime, which is either trying to get to us, or is in transit. But the underworld does not stand still either. And here is another growing clause of illegal business. Amber. These shots from Ukraine will say better than any words about the scope of the problem. This is how amber is mined, and this is what remains after such miners. Of course, the prospectors themselves earn pennies, but those who lead them are very, very wealthy people. And now we have an amber fever. Also in Soviet years geological exploration has suggested: potentially deposits of the sun stone are located in the Brest and Gomel regions. And if in industrial scale no one mines this mineral in our country, then black diggers do not miss the chance to enrich themselves. What is it fraught with, and how to resist such a barbaric invasion of nature? Investigation of the "Main ether". In Olkhovka everyone local knows: deep in the earth there is a sunstone. In Soviet times, peat was mined near the village, and amber was raised to the surface with it. The locals say they collected stones like potatoes in the field. These very amber bowels haunt black diggers even today. After themselves, they leave a mark for many years. Near Olkhovka not so long ago ecologists and police found two groups of treasure hunters behind black fishing. These frames clearly show how the amber was taken out of the ground in a barbaric way. The diggers used a homemade pump that washed rocks to the surface. Water was taken from the nearest canal. By the way, the amber was mined by a company that two years ago officially received permission from the local authorities for geological exploration. At the same time, think about it, a third of the district's territory was allocated for research. But this was the end of the legal actions of the limited liability company. Then the enterprise acted according to its own scenario, causing irreparable damage environment... Even after a while, the excavation site resembles a lunar landscape. There was not a single certified geologist in the group of diggers. In search of a stone, they left about 60 holes 10-12 meters deep. They were looking for an amber vein. According to experts, after that the forest will not be able to grow here for at least a decade. Evgeny Peregudov, Chief Specialist of the Brest Regional Committee natural resources and environmental protection: “Often, diggers carry out hydraulic washing, including under root system trees that we can observe here with you. And the trees later dry up and die. These actions have disturbed not only the natural ecosystem, but in the future this territory is subject to weathering and other processes of destruction. " Back in the Soviet years, geological exploration suggested that potentially deposits of gems are located in the Brest and Gomel regions, closer to the Ukrainian border. But the reserves of stone on the scale of a huge country were then considered insignificant, and extraction was troublesome and unprofitable. The stone is hidden deep - at a distance of about 50 meters. Small deposits brought by the glacier from the Baltic are more accessible. The most studied was the Gatcha deposit near Brest, the territory of a peat plant. Under the swamp there are supposedly about 300 tons of succinite-type sunstone. However, amber was also seen here by the employees of the enterprise. Even fragments of amber-bearing pine are kept in the office, but they emphasize that they are in no hurry to start mining. Too expensive and costly. But the shadow business plays with all colors. Demand for a gem in last years increased. And rumors that Belarusian amber replenishes private collections and is exhibited at mineralogical exhibitions haunt black diggers. Experts are sure: the amber fever came to us from Ukraine. Sergey Mamchik, head of the geology department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus: “Our deposits are the same as in Ukraine. But in Ukraine this is a subject of not entirely pure business, black and gray schemes. Naturally, we will not allow this in Belarus. Changes are now being made to legislative framework, the conditions for the development of deposits are determined, which will allow the environmentally safe development of these deposits. " The amber industry of the neighbors has reached impressive proportions. 90% of the gem in Ukraine is mined illegally. Huge territories are more reminiscent of post-apocalypse. Ukrainian Polesie on the verge ecological disaster... Thousands of hectares coniferous forests turn into muddy swamps and deserts. Groundwater streams are being destroyed and will take decades to recover. The prospect for residents of Rivne, Zhytomyr and Volyn is to be left without clean water. But the amber mines don't think about it. Thousands of people are ready to fight for gems, and millions of dollars are deposited in the pockets of miners, law enforcement officers and officials. Families, both children and old people dig. But easy money comes at a cost to nature. The amber fever seized the minds and hearts, the whole gangsters are arranging a showdown among themselves. They are literally fighting for the amber business in the borderlands. So, during the demarcation in the Drogichin region, the residents of Volyn obstructed the work. The dispute arose over the canal, from where the miners took water to wash the amber. The reservoir has officially appeared on the territory of Belarus. Illegal shipments of the gem are also detained at customs. Smugglers tried to smuggle 800 kilograms of rough stone from Ukraine to Lithuania in bags with sunflower husks. More than a hundred unprocessed amber stones were washed by diggers on the territory of the Sporovsky reserve and in water protection zone Lake Black. Leaving behind 8 thousand square meters degraded land. For amber mining, the diggers received a term of 4.5 years of restriction of freedom. During the year, only on the territory of the Brest region, facts of illegal stone mining were revealed in five districts. Evgeny Peregudov, chief specialist of the Brest Regional Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection: “The stocks of amber on the territory of the Republic of Belarus have been estimated only preliminary. There are no approved stocks. Therefore, today, officially, on a legal basis, production cannot be carried out. Punishment is provided for damage to land, for the destruction of objects flora... If the damage exceeds 1 thousand BV, a criminal case is initiated ”. However, new applications from private companies have already been submitted for geological exploration of amber deposits. There is no guarantee that the mining of the Sunstone will not turn into a gray scheme.

For the European Union, we are not only economic partners. Belarus is also a security border. Illegals, drug trafficking ... It seems that our border guards have already learned to identify and suppress all this crime, which is either trying to get to us, or is in transit. But the underworld does not stand still either. And here is another growing clause of illegal business. Amber.

These shots from Ukraine will say better than any words about the scope of the problem. This is how amber is mined, and this is what remains after such miners. Of course, the prospectors themselves earn pennies, but those who lead them are very, very wealthy people.

And now we have an amber fever. Back in the Soviet years, geological exploration suggested that potentially deposits of the sun stone are located in the Brest and Gomel regions. And if no one is mining this mineral on an industrial scale in our country, then black diggers do not miss the chance to enrich themselves. What is it fraught with, and how to resist such a barbaric invasion of nature? Investigation of the "Main ether".

In Olkhovka, every local resident knows: deep in the ground there is a sun stone. In Soviet times, peat was mined near the village, and amber was raised to the surface with it. The locals say they collected stones like potatoes in the field.

These very amber bowels haunt black diggers even today. After themselves, they leave a mark for many years.

Near Olkhovka not so long ago ecologists and police found two groups of treasure hunters behind black fishing. These frames clearly show how the amber was taken out of the ground in a barbaric way. The diggers used a homemade pump that washed rocks to the surface. Water was taken from the nearest canal.

By the way, the amber was mined by a company that two years ago officially received permission from the local authorities for geological exploration. At the same time, think about it, a third of the district's territory was allocated for research. But this was the end of the legal actions of the limited liability company. Then the enterprise acted according to its own scenario, causing irreparable damage to the environment. Even after a while, the excavation site resembles a lunar landscape.

There was not a single certified geologist in the group of diggers. In search of a stone, they left about 60 holes 10-12 meters deep. They were looking for an amber vein. According to experts, after that the forest will not be able to grow here for at least a decade.

“Often, diggers carry out hydraulic washing, including under the root system of trees, which we can observe here. And the trees later dry up and die. These actions have disturbed not only the natural ecosystem, but in the future this territory is subject to weathering and other processes of destruction. "

Back in the Soviet years, geological exploration suggested that potentially deposits of gems are located in the Brest and Gomel regions, closer to the Ukrainian border. But the reserves of stone on the scale of a huge country were then considered insignificant, and extraction was troublesome and unprofitable. The stone is hidden deep - at a distance of about 50 meters. Small deposits brought by the glacier from the Baltic are more accessible. The most studied was the Gatcha deposit near Brest, the territory of a peat plant. Under the swamp there are supposedly about 300 tons of succinite-type sunstone. However, amber was also seen here by the employees of the enterprise. Even fragments of amber-bearing pine are kept in the office, but they emphasize that they are in no hurry to start mining. Too expensive and costly.

But the shadow business plays with all colors. The demand for the gem has grown in recent years. And rumors that Belarusian amber replenishes private collections and is exhibited at mineralogical exhibitions haunt black diggers.

Experts are sure: the amber fever came to us from Ukraine.

Sergey Mamchik, Head of the Geology Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus: “Our deposits are the same as in Ukraine. But in Ukraine this is a subject of not entirely pure business, black and gray schemes. Naturally, we will not allow this in Belarus. Now changes are being made to the legal framework, the conditions for the development of deposits are being determined, which will allow the environmentally safe development of these deposits. "

The amber industry of the neighbors has reached impressive proportions. 90% of the gem in Ukraine is mined illegally. Huge territories are more reminiscent of post-apocalypse. Ukrainian Polesie on the brink of ecological disaster. Thousands of hectares of coniferous forests are turning into muddy swamps and deserts. Groundwater streams are being destroyed and will take decades to recover. The prospect for residents of Rivne, Zhytomyr and Volyn is to be left without clean water. But the amber mines don't think about it. Thousands of people are ready to fight for gems, and millions of dollars are deposited in the pockets of miners, law enforcement officers and officials. Families, both children and old people dig. But easy money comes at a cost to nature. The amber fever seized the minds and hearts, the whole gangsters are arranging a showdown among themselves.

They are literally fighting for the amber business in the borderlands. So, during the demarcation in the Drogichin region, the residents of Volyn obstructed the work. The dispute arose over the canal, from where the miners took water to wash the amber. The reservoir has officially appeared on the territory of Belarus.

Illegal shipments of the gem are also detained at customs. Smugglers tried to smuggle 800 kilograms of rough stone from Ukraine to Lithuania in bags with sunflower husks.

More than a hundred unprocessed amber stones were washed by diggers on the territory of the Sporovsky reserve and in the water protection zone of Lake Chernoe. Leaving behind 8 thousand square meters of degraded land.

For amber mining, the diggers received a term of 4.5 years of restriction of freedom. During the year, only on the territory of the Brest region, facts of illegal stone mining were revealed in five districts.

Evgeny Peregudov, Chief Specialist of the Brest Regional Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection: “Stocks of amber on the territory of the Republic of Belarus have been estimated only preliminary. There are no approved stocks. Therefore, today, officially, on a legal basis, production cannot be carried out. Punishment is provided for damage to land, for the destruction of flora objects. If the damage exceeds 1 thousand BV, a criminal case is initiated ”.

However, new applications from private companies have already been submitted for geological exploration of amber deposits. There is no guarantee that the mining of the Sunstone will not turn into a gray scheme.

A Belarusian sun stone is taken out of a swamp near the village of Barantsy, Zhabinka district, Brest region. Here is one of the 22 deposits explored in previous years at the Gatch-Osovsky amber occurrence. According to geological prospecting data, up to 2.5 tons of valuable petrified resin rests on the pilot site, where trial operation is underway.

It takes about 10 minutes off-road from Barantsov to deposit No. 2. The most difficult section is the last 500 meters to the swamp. Here you have to either walk or drive a decommissioned fire engine "Gas-66". The workers say that the Niva can also pass, but this is not certain. Nearby is a narrow-gauge railway that leads from nowhere to nowhere. She is here for the future: if "the amber tramples."

"Shishiga" stops near the guard's booth. There is a motor boat at the makeshift dock. The ship delivers workers and geologists through the swamp to the platform, on which the trial mining of the Belarusian sun stone is underway. Previously, only black diggers operated here, now it is a contractor firm.

The area of ​​the deposit, on which the trial operation is being carried out, is 19,800 sq. m. On the pilot site of the Gatch-Osovsky bog massif 22 deposits have been identified and explored. According to the project, they contain 2.5 tons of amber. In the developed deposit No. 2, the reserves are 345 kg.

The depth of the amber according to the project is up to four meters. According to the results of our geological exploration - up to six meters. The conditions are difficult - it's still a swamp. The deposit is uneven, extremely unstable along strike and depth. There are empty spaces, there are areas in which there is a high concentration. This indicates that these are Quaternary deposits - amber came here with glaciers and a donkey in swamps. This is an extremely difficult field. The concentration of amber per ton of the host rock fluctuates: here, for example, 100 grams of amber per ton, and after five meters it may already be 0 grams per ton, - explains the director of LLC "Belgeopoisk" Oleg Pivovarchik.

Pump - Italian, pontoons - military, cab from the combine

With the representatives of the contractor company, we board the boat and go to the platform. Outwardly, it resembles a huge amphibious harvester, which is bogged down in a swamp by the cabin. In the front there is a control panel for an Italian submersible pump for 50 thousand euros. Behind - a bucket for loosening peat.

The installation was created on the basis of a Dragflow submersible pump, Italy. To separate the sand from the coarse fraction and sort the amber, nets were bought. Power plant UES 2250 (harvester - TUT.BY) manufactured by Gomselmash. Pontoons are military. In a heap all this had to be collected by ourselves and adjusted to work, - recalls the representative of the contractor company Pavel Baltsevich.

The pump descends to a depth and sucks in the amber-bearing rock. Then the mass is fed through a slurry line to a sieve with a four-millimeter gap.

Everything that is less than four millimeters: sand, water - goes away. The rest goes to the conveyor belt, where the manual bulkhead passes. In this deposit, according to the design and estimate documentation, we must wash 56 thousand cubic meters of rock. The fraction of amber-bearing rock over 4 mm is approximately 20%. Geologists sort out peat together with workers and select amber. We tried many methods, but only this one allowed us to significantly increase productivity, - explained Oleg Anatolyevich.

Geologists work at the deposits on a rotational basis: two weeks in two. At the end of the working day, they take the mined stones from the platform, take them to the guard wagon, where they place them in a transparent bag and seal them. Then they will be sent to specialists in Minsk for examination and assessment.

We take samples, fix the depth of occurrence, in which rocks. Our geological information is then logged, documented and used in reserve approvals. While we are conducting a pilot operation of the deposit in order to assess the prospects for industrial production of amber, - said a senior geologist at Belgeopoisk LLC. Alexey Anisko.

“Our stone is very dense. Kaliningrad - transparent "

Over the last eight days of work, we managed to collect 18 transparent bags with amber. The total weight of the mined is 13 kg. The largest fraction is 10 centimeters across and about 100 grams of weight. According to experts, on the market such a copy can cost more than $ 1,000.

We can say that we went down in history. The first amber was smaller, and then the fractions went larger, - said Oleksiy Anisko. - Our amber has a very diverse range of colors, unlike Kaliningrad amber. They are mostly honey-colored, while ours range from honey to lemon, cherry, pomegranate. A variety of shades and colors are highly prized in the jewelry industry.

In support of the words of the senior geologist, the investor's representative Vladimir Mayuk took amber and illuminated it with a flashlight:

Our stone is very dense. Kaliningrad is transparent. We have no cracks, chips and are completely translucent. Look at what color. We have a dark color, pomegranate, even with a white splash. The stone has its own characteristics. It is more colorful - more suitable for jewelry.

In Belarus, amber deposits are not primary, but Quaternary, emphasizes Aleksey Anisko. The sun stone was brought to us by glaciers.

Until now, scientists argue where they came from: from the territory of modern Ukraine or the Kaliningrad region.

"A variant of using Belarusian amber for the jewelry industry is being developed"

So far, the task of the Belarusian specialists is to conduct test production and determine. to what extent our locations are suitable for such works.

In order to understand the feasibility of mining, it is necessary to conduct geological exploration in order to understand the extractability of amber from the rock and to make an economic and geological assessment. Determine whether industrial production is needed or production by an artel method - that is, to develop deposits in small areas. In addition, you need to understand what kind of amber we have in Belarus - what size, grade, structure it has, - said Oleg Pivovarchik.

All collected material will be submitted to experts for evaluation.

The tasks of expanding such works can be performed when the economic feasibility of production is determined. But even these samples show that Belarus has valuable raw materials. Now we need to solve the issues of its quality, cost and implementation. And also - the problem of creating a unified system in the country that would make it possible to extract these raw materials and sell them, - says the deputy general director of Belzarubezhtorg Andrey Kovkhuto.

In 2016, out of economy, the Belarusian authorities decided to experiment: to allow private structures to search and develop amber deposits on the territory of the republic.

The legal grounds were introduced very quickly. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has prepared proposals for the artisanal mining of amber, legislators have made changes to the subsoil code.

So far, the only company in Belarus is legally engaged in amber - LLC "Belgeopoisk". Registered in Minsk, the geotextile was received within the Zhabinka region. Brest region.

As pioneers of amber exploration, they were provided with the sweetest of the already studied - the Gatch-Osovo deposit in the area adjacent to the local peat plant. Under the swamp, presumably, there are at least 5-6 tons of sunstone.

The company has drawn up documents for the development of the site in the mode of pilot operation. It's too early to envy the pioneers. According to the statistics they provided for last year, they have no real results.

Meanwhile, the head of the geology department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus, Sergei Mamchik, told Ezhednevnik that the work of Belgeopoisk would have a significant impact on further destiny diligent business in Belarus.

The authorities themselves do not yet know how to develop it in practice. The technical order, the recommendations of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the attitude of local authorities - all this will be shaped under the influence of the first experience. He will show the economy. If there is a profit, without causing damage to the environment, it is possible that amber mining will develop further.

Sergey Mamchik believes that if local executive committees see a conscientious attitude towards fulfilling obligations on the part of miners, the possibility of obtaining additional funds for the local treasury, it will become easier to obtain a development permit.

The next stage of the amber business will be its industrial production. It is assumed that after the completion of successful exploration work, the company will be able to apply for a mining permit. In a number of countries, there are pass-through licenses - whoever finds it develops it. In Belarus, everything is decided by local authorities.

True, the question of whether it is worth mining is also still open. There is no amber processing and processing industry in Belarus, and the low demand that exists today is fully provided by the Kaliningrad Amber Combine.

According to the representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the sale of amber may be promising outside Belarus. This is not gold, not diamonds, there are no strict requirements for the export of legal amber. However, one should not expect much profit from exports. Sergei Mamchik believes that only in the Zhabinka region, in terms of quantity and color, there will be enough Belarusian amber for his own amber room. You can earn much more from demonstrating such a curiosity to tourists than from exporting amber. In addition, amber opens up new and interesting fields of application. It is used in Chinese medicine, added to fertilizers for accelerated plant growth.