Dark amber can be found in Kansas, in lignite beds along the Smoky Hill River, Ellsworth County, but its deposits are difficult to access, as they are located under the Kanopolis Reservior. Only about 50 pounds of amber were found before the flooding of this area. This amber was discovered by George Jelinek and named "jelinite". An interesting article characterizing amber from Kansas, "Amber Bacteria and Protozoa of Ellsworth County from the Mid-Cretaceous" was written by Benjamin M. Wagoner while he was in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, USA (Integrative Biology, University of California at Berkeley, USA).

We list other states in which amber was found:

• Alaska: amber was found in lignite and was thought to have originated from ancient swamp cypresses.
• Arkansas: more than 900 inclusions of insects, arachnids and plant remains have been found in amber from lignite beds. Now it is the largest insert of amber in North America (North America). The field is located under the city of Malvern, in the Claiborne Formation of the Eocene period. The collection is kept at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
• California): Amber found in Tertiary (Eocene) shale, Simi Valley Township, Ventura County.
• Maryland: Upper Cretaceous amber was found at the beginning of this century.
• Massachusetts: before the beginning of 1883, 340 grams of amber was found on Nantucket Island in glaunite sand and calcareous formations of the Tertiary period.
• Montana: The deposit was found in the Hell Creek Formation of the Cretaceous, near the town of Glendive.
• New Jersey (New Jersey): amber was found in the short-lived mines for the extraction of marl (fertilizer), glauconite chalk sand. In 1967, a famous inclusion was found in it - a remarkably preserved primitive ant; this ant was supposedly a link between the typhiid wasps and today's common ants. Hundreds of pounds of fossilized resin have been mined from downtown New Jersey. Late Cretaceous amber has retained inclusions with a rich variety of insects and plants, from miniature flowers to a whole fungus! Numerous articles have been written about the finds of this amber and posted on American scientific websites. Late Cretaceous amber has also been found in the Raritan Formation shale on the New Jersey-New York border near Sayreville Clay and in the Raritan Bay area.
• New Mexico: a small amount of amber was found in the coal layer. Amber is found in the San Juan Basin Formation, Fruitland Formation, and is 75 million years old. The indisputability of the plant origin of this amber is evident, since inclusions were found in it, similar to the contents of the logs of modern sequoia and bald cypress (Taxodiaceae).
• North Carolina: Cretaceous amber of lignite deposits in small quantities; in recent years, after storms, amber or pieces of copal have also been found here.
• Tennessee (Tennessee): The first insect known today was found in North American amber in 1917, identified as a stonefly.
• Texas: found in Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits.
• Washington (Washington): An abandoned coal mine in the Issaquah Mountains is an amber deposit in the Eocene formation. In amber of yellow, orange red and amber colors, plant fragments are visible, usually the remains of cedar (Cupressaceae). There are no ancient insects in it. Some of these finds are housed in the Museum of Natural Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle (Washington's Burke Museum in Seattle).
• Wyoming: Steve Levine, a geologist, found amber here in the late 1970s. The gem was formed in the Eocene from a carbonaceous un-altered arkose sandstone formation. It was a dark-colored nodule that appeared as a result of explosions at the West Uranium Mine in Jeffrey City, Wyoming (Jeffrey City, Wyoming). Other samples of Wyoming amber, described by Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Giertych, and Miller in 2001, were found in Upper Cretaceous Cretaceous deposits. This bitumen, described as a reddish-yellow and very brittle fraction, was found in the Lance Formation in a dense layer of gray loam without limestone admixture (lime-free gray loam). Kosmowska-Geranovic placed it in the same group as Kansas jelinite, the sedarites of fossil bitumen.

Amber in the Baltic Region

The Baltic Sea region has been the primary source of amber since prehistoric times. Although it is not known exactly when Baltic amber was first mined, its use can be traced back to the Stone Age. Baltic amber has been found in Egyptian tombs that date back to 3200 BC, the time when archeological barter and trade routes were established. In Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) there are about 100 Neolithic burials in which amber was found. From 800-1000 AD, European maritime trade was dominated by the Vikings with their "northern gold", and Scandinavia is still the main exporter of amber today.

A map depicting the range from eastern Poland through Russia (Russia) shows some of today's main locations of Baltic amber deposits:

• Denmark: Amber is found mainly along the western coast of Jutland, from the southern border with Germany to the outskirts of the Danish city of Skagen. In 1940, a large number of amber beads dating back to 2500-2200 BC were discovered in Jutland. They are currently on display at the Danish Art Museum Skive. This region, including the western coast of Denmark and neighboring Germany, is the area of ​​the Bronze Age amber trade route to the Mediterranean. In the region in the past, amber was transported in larger quantities than at present. It is estimated that today about 80% of the gem sold by Denmark is imported into it from Poland, CIS countries (CIS) and Germany.
• Sweden: southwestern part, as well as several islands in the Baltic Sea, a lot of amber. It gathers on the beaches, especially after storms.
• Germany: especially famous for its skilled engravers, among which is the most famous in the jewelry business, Idar Oberstein (Idar Oberstein). Amber is found along the northern part of Germany, on the border coast of the Baltic Sea and along the Elbe River. Germany also imports amber from the CIS countries.
• Poland: along the northwestern side of the Bay of Danzig, Baltic amber is often found in the amber-forming layer. By the end of the Second World War, amber deposits were almost depleted, although amber can still be found along the entire coast of the Baltic Sea and in a number of places inland, as well as along the border with Germany, from the sea to the Oder River (Oder).
• Russia: a small geological remnant in Russia, located in a place called Samland in the Kaliningrad region (Kaliningrad Oblast), continues to be one of the largest deposits of amber in the Baltic area. Kaliningrad is home to the Amber Museum, which is believed to contain more than two-thirds of the world's amber and 99% of the Baltic amber. It is not only rich in quantity, but also in the variety of varieties of this precious fossil resin.
• Lithuania: borders on the amber-bearing Kaliningrad region, is also rich in amber, the amber layer reaches this country as well. Here is one of the largest amber museums in the world. Lithuanian amber in the form of amber lacquer is used for coating ship decks and fine violins and is in good demand.
• Latvia: another Baltic state that is rich in amber, it has a School of Applied Arts, the city of Liepaja. This is one of the few schools in the world that specializes in the artistic processing of amber.
• Estonia: third country with access to the Baltic Sea and amber. The use of ceramics here was observed at the beginning of the Early Stone Age, or Neolithic (the first half of the fifth millennium to the middle of the second millennium BC). In Estonia, pottery skills appeared around the beginning of the fourth millennium BC, 2500, when pots were decorated with dimples and indentations. This distinctive feature was characteristic of the “comb-pottery culture” – craftsmen of that time carved figurines from amber for decoration in order to place them in burials for the “next life” of the deceased. Settlements with a "Pit-Comb Ware culture" spread from northern Finland to East Prussia, and Baltic amber was in great demand among the population. The art of "pit-comb ceramics" is considered the direct predecessor of the later art of the Baltic Finns, or Estonians, Finns and Livonians (Lavonians). The Iron Age in Estonia began about 2000 years ago with iron smelting; amber was in those days one of the trade goods, this time for the peoples of the Roman Empire. The Roman historian Laur emphasizes the importance of Baltic amber to its southerners, who wrote that in Rome the value of even the tiniest piece of amber was higher than the price of a "living slave".

The Baltic region includes the settlements of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Frisian Islands, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Frisian Islands, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia). It also includes settlements of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Czech and Slovak Republics), Switzerland, France, Great Britain (Switzerland, France, United Kingdom). Amber comes from many Asian countries (Asia) (for example, the so-called Chinese amber (Chinese amber), has a light red color and is heavily mottled with small cracks).

• England: Along the coast of Kent, Essex and Suffolk, in the southern part of the North Sea, small amounts of amber can be found. English amber is usually golden or cloudy yellow in color, the exact source of origin is not known. Amber artifacts found in prehistoric graves in England are not necessarily of English origin.

Other amber deposits

• Dominican Republic: her amber is classified as retinite because it does not contain succinic acid; reads its age from the Tertiary (Oligocene) period. When exposed to UV rays, all Dominican amber fluoresces blue or green. Jewelery produced by Dominican artisans tends to be of varying quality, reflecting the Indian culture of the Taino group of peoples of the past. The Dominican Republic is the richest source of amber outside the Baltics.
• Myanmar (formerly called Burma) Myanmar (formerly called Burma): Burmite was used by Chinese craftsmen in the early Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) and was rarely exported to any market outside of China. Burmite contains 2% succinic acid, which is less than in Baltic amber, but is still considered amber today.
• Lebanon: Lower Cretaceous amber from Lebanon is about 130 million years old. This amber resin oozed from the trees of New Zealand's agathis forest and contains the remains of some of the oldest and most famous embalmed insects, as well as fossil plants, animals and feathers. In addition, Lebanese amber was sold by the Phoenicians as early as 5,000 years ago.
• Romania: rumanite, brownish yellow and contains excess sulfur. Black amber varieties are deep reds, blues, browns when held up to light. It does not occur in nature in pure black color. The so-called "black amber" is a type of lignite coal.
• Sicily: Simetite (simetite) has yellow, red, blue, green colors, its varieties contain a small amount of succinic acid compared to Baltic amber (age - Tertiary Miocene of the Oligocene). The source tree for this resin comes from the tropical Burseraceae protium, an angiosperm rather than a conifer. Most simetites are found in museum collections; jewelry is rarely made from them.
• Mexico: amber discovered in the state of Chiapas (Chiapas) and only recently explored; classified as retinitis (derived from leguminous trees).
• Canada: Cedarite fossil resin is of great scientific importance, because it contains well-preserved inclusions from insects - ants, spiders and mites. It also contains pollen grains, spores, and plant fragments from the Upper Cretaceous period. The first deposits that have been carefully studied are from Cedar Lake, Manitoba. It was noted that these deposits were secondary, that is, redeposited from an unknown remote source. Amber is also found in primary formations (−75 million years old) near Medicine Hat, Alberta. Grassy Lake City, Alberta is another Canadian deposit that has yielded many insect fossils.
• Japan: Amber contained in coal seams is used for the manufacture of varnishes and is not exported anywhere. Amber deposits are found in the Taneichi and Kunitan formations near the Kuji (85 million years old) and the formation near the city of Choshi (120 million years old). Samples can be viewed at the Kuji Amber Museum (Kuji Amber). Museum) and the National Science Museum in Tokyo (National Science Museum in Tokyo).
• Tanzania: amber deposits are older than copal, but younger than Baltic amber.
• New Zealand: amber (ambrite), transparent yellow, true mountain resin. New Zealand also has Kauri copal, a naturally occurring resin similar to amber. The kauri copal comes from the New Zealand agathis, (Agathis australis), which has been growing for over 1000 years and reaches a height of 120-160 feet (40-50 meters). Kauri copal was found at a depth of 300 feet (100 meters) and is extremely old in age. It does not contain succinic acid, and it is also resistant to polishing, although insect inclusions can be found in it, and its color is similar to amber. The Kauri Museum, located in Matakohe, Northland, New Zealand, has an interesting collection with detailed descriptions of the copal and the copal tree.
• Greenland: retinitis found in the southeastern and southwestern regions of the country.

Amber has no practical use in application. Despite its good combustibility, it is used exclusively in areas that are useful to people for social reasons: jewelry, fragrance (when burning), furniture and haberdashery accessories. In addition, the mineral has a very interesting history. The name comes from the Arab culture, and - in fact - as the first studies of its deposits. The peoples of the south believed that amber is the result of dew crystallization. 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 the resins of coniferous trees that have existed for a very long time. The scientific justification for this was confirmed only in the 18th century by the Russian researcher and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.

In science fiction, amber was seen as a unique way to search for the DNA of ancient creatures. So in Michael Crichton's novel, scientists who found inclusion (an amber rock with an insect stuck inside) used the blood of dinosaurs that mosquitoes ate in order to extract 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, the 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 it 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 has become a famous deposit (now part of the Kaliningrad region), where many deposits of amber 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 overvalued. Although, in comparison with other minerals, it can cost buyers a substantial amount.

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

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

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

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

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

The Baltic countries and Eastern Europe rank second in terms of amber mining.

Poland, for example, brings the weight of extracted materials up to 5-10 tons per year. Which is almost 100 times less than 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 was with the Urals, where over the years of research, and sometimes just everyday experiments and accidents, there were various minerals, iron and ores. This is one of the most resource-rich regions of Russia.

It is also rich in reservoirs and rivers. It is obvious that amber in ancient times was washed out from the roots of trees, and could get anywhere, all over the world. That is why there are so many different small deposits of this value now. But the Urals, despite its productivity in the extraction of minerals, is not rich in amber. Among sea stones, iron ores and other resources, some found pebbles that looked like amber in all respects. But large deposits in that region were never discovered.

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 the change and flow of underwater rivers.

But for geologists and researchers, there is still a reason to search for large deposits of stones of interest to 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, so it is found all over the world. But especially large deposits stand out for a reason.

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

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

Despite this small variety, amber is very actively mined. This is a good business, especially if the deposits are large. But even today, almost two hundred years later, since people began to mine gems for commercial purposes, the technology has not changed much. Modern equipment, motor boats, digging combines were added, but the main work still remained manual.

Amber is a very fragile mineral, so there is no point in entrusting its search and processing to machines.

Over the past two centuries, on the beaches and shallow waters where amber is mined, more than 60 million tons of amber have been collected by 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 by walking along the beach. Therefore, people stepped forward and started 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, for sure, those stones also remained, which for some reason did not hit the shore. For the extraction of amber from the sea, special nets (4-6 m long) were used, with the help of which they searched for amber stuck in marine debris and algae. This method still exists, but it is usually combined with others.

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

There is also a lot of quartz and zinc, 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 somewhere up to 30 meters), with the help of powerful water pressure - the unnecessary is washed out, and the “blue earth” remains.

After washing and sorting, amber is mined from the blue earth. The found gem 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 is on the shelves of jewelry stores. Yes, it is very often smooth, because for many years it was washed by water. But its shape, as a rule, is unnatural and uneven. It is the task of the jeweler to process the stone in such a way that it fits this or that piece of jewelry.

The largest amber deposit is located in the Baltic zone. Here is a large amber quarry, 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) became the place where the world's largest amber plant is located, where amber mining does not stop.

What do you associate the Kaliningrad region with? Baltic Sea, Curonian Spit and… amber. We have 90% of the world's reserves of this stone and the world's largest deposit. As part of the mega-project of the Community of St. Petersburg bloggers and HeadHunter, we visited the Amber Plant to see the process of amber mining with our own eyes.

Let's start with a brief excursion into the history of amber and its mining. Baltic amber is the hardened resin of trees that grew in the vast territory of the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and adjacent areas within the borders of the modern Baltic Sea. Approximately 45-50 million years ago, there was a significant warming and humidification of the climate, which caused an abundant release of resin from trees. In the air, it oxidized, covered with a thick dark brown crust, and in this form accumulated in the soil. Rivers and streams gradually washed out hardened clods of resin from the earth and carried them to the mouth of a large river that flowed into the ancient sea. This is how the world's largest amber deposit, Palmniken, was formed.

The oldest and most primitive way of extraction is manual collection on the beaches and shallows, where the sea threw amber. It was this method that was the main one in ancient and medieval eras. Now it is used only by tourists who often walk along the beaches and carefully peer into the sand.

Since the 14th century, another method of extraction has become widespread - catching with large nets. After storms, the sea often raises algae with amber from the bottom. People went into the water and pulled nets to their shore. This method is still popular with modern amber divers, who can often be found after storms on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Sometimes they find really large pieces.

Since the middle of the 17th century, attempts began to dig up amber from the coastal cliffs, and in 1871 the first amber mine was laid in the area of ​​the present village of Sinyavino. Its depth reached 30 meters. The mine was closed after seven years due to unprofitability and danger of work. In 1872, Shtantin & Becker acquired the Palmniken estate, rented the right to mine amber there, and began to develop production. Several mines were laid on the beaches, and the Anna mine, which operated right up to 1925, became the most productive.

More productive was the extraction with the help of open mine workings, which began in the first half of the 19th century. On the coast, small quarries 30 by 30 meters were laid, layers of waste rock were torn off, revealing the "blue earth". In 1912, at the Palmnikenskoye deposit, a large open pit 50 meters deep was laid - "Walter", which was exploited for about 60 years. In those days, the work was done by bucket-wheel excavators that scooped up the “blue earth” and loaded it into open cars of an electric train that followed to the processing plant. Before World War II, about 400 tons of raw amber per year were mined at this deposit. It was processed at the Koenigsberg Amber Manufactory and other enterprises of East Prussia.

After the war, the Germans destroyed almost all the equipment that was used to extract amber. But already in 1947, on the basis of the Palmnikensky deposit, the Kaliningrad amber plant was created. The old German quarry "Walter" was reconstructed by Soviet engineers and German specialists. "Voluntary-compulsory." When the possibilities of this quarry were exhausted, in 1976 a new Primorsky quarry was built. To date, this is the only place on Earth where 90% of the world's amber reserves are concentrated.

The seaside quarry makes an impression. The average depth of the amber layer is 50 meters, which means that it still needs to be reached. At the same time, the thickness of the "blue earth" varies from 0.5 to 17.5 meters, an average of 7.5 meters.

I’ll tell you right away about the protection of the quarry. Even on an official tour, no one has the right to pick up even a small piece of amber from the ground. All participants in the mining process are searched several times at the exit from the quarry. It is said that even governors and ministers obey these rules. Such security measures are not surprising, since there are a lot of so-called "black diggers" in the Kaliningrad region. They are tearing up the beaches and fields near Yantarny and even trying to get through to official quarries. It is said that such a risk is worth the possible consequences, since the price of large pieces of amber on the black roar can be very decent.

The most effective way of extracting amber is open, using the principle of hydromechanization. This brings us to truly unique professions that are now difficult to find in any other region of Russia. One of them is the operator of the ESH-10 walking excavator. There are four such machines in the quarry and they are able to move on special pontoon legs. Considering the size and weight of the excavator and the condition of the land on which it stands, this is perhaps the only way to move.

At one time, the bucket of an almost 700-ton machine can scoop up about 20 tons of rock.

After that, the "blue earth" falls under a jet of water under high pressure and is washed away. The water itself comes from the Baltic Sea and, passing through all the pipes and filters of the Amber Combine, it returns there. Without any harm to the environment.

The second unique profession is an amber miner. At the moment, this is the easiest and most effective way to catch large pieces of amber. The work is hard and even harmful, but it cannot be automated. Any attempt to exclude a person from this process has so far been a failure.

And so people in overalls stand and from the blurred blue clay they catch especially valuable large ambers with nets.

The remaining slurry is sent through a pipeline to a processing plant located at the plant. At the factory, the “blue earth” washed out by water passes through a grate with holes with a diameter of 5 cm, where workers select the largest pieces of the mineral, then through a sieve with holes of 2 mm, through which most of the waste rock dissolved in water goes to waste.

The remaining material is passed through a system of arc sieves, where it is initially washed and dehydrated. Then in the separator, in a special solution with a density higher than that of amber, the mass is stratified, heavy particles settle to the bottom, small amber with pieces of wood floats to the surface. Then repeated washing and drying in calorific ovens. Basically separated from impurities, amber is delivered to a screen - a system of sieves located one above the other and moving in opposite directions with holes of different diameters.

But the Amber Combine is famous not only for its production. Its subsidiary, Yantarny Yuvelirprom, is engaged in the production of various products: from simple costume jewelry to real works of art. According to statistics hh.ru Amber crafters, stone carvers and jewelers-fitters are in great demand in the region. At the same time, the average salary of such specialists for the first quarter of 2017 reached 42.5 rubles. An experienced specialist can earn much more.

Amber is first sorted by quality, color and volume. Depending on these parameters, his fate is decided. The extracted stone is divided into ornamental, pressing and varnish. Then it is sawn, cut, drilled, polished and sent to jewelers. See photos.

"Today we bury a diver"

How "black diggers" mine amber in the Kaliningrad region

Alexander Chernyshev

Divers, prospectors, netters, water sweepers - although each of them has their own technologies, equipment and scale, they all have one thing in common: the desire to make money on collecting, illegal mining and selling amber. Some manage to hit the jackpot, others get heavy fines, and someone dies. RIA Novosti correspondent went to the Kaliningrad region to find out who and why risks their lives for the sake of a mineral of organic origin.

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

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

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

However, the life of those who did not have enough space at the plant is also associated with amber. Even on the table at the administrator of the hotel where we settled, hundreds of yellow and red beads are laid out. Narrowing her eyes, she strings them on a thread and ties them into a bracelet. “What is the time to waste? So the working day flies by faster, and the penny is not superfluous. You go to any store or visit someone - all the girls earn extra money. And the men dive for the stone. Today we are burying one - it was covered with clay under water, ”a resident of the village sighs.

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

In the early 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 is frightened at the sight of the police. Operatives ask people in diving suits to raise the engine. After making sure that this is an ordinary screw, we go to others - the same story with them, although in the nets many have pieces of yellow stone. Some boats are completely empty, only a note lies: “Thank you for not stealing anything. The diver works at the bottom.

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

Cossack robbers

We leave for Zelenogradsk - a town by the sea in the north of the region. Having moved off-road, we observe 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

From the mesmerizing spectacle, silhouettes are distracting, quickly receding in the fog. The car brakes sharply, the operatives give chase. However, the prospectors manage to escape along the paths known only to them. The water in one of the pits is still swaying, ladders are placed on the sides.

In a hurry, the "kopyshi" abandoned their tools, food supplies and a bucket of amber - a minute ago the work was in full swing.

“We didn’t even talk. No ethics, ”the employee ironically, demonstrating the found hose. Water was pompously pumped along it from dug ditches, which broke the "blue clay" where the amber was hiding. Next to the giant pits are small wells: they are washed out from the inside, letting 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 insulting to part with them during confiscation.

Today, law enforcement officers are not lucky, but not all of their operations are unsuccessful. “On November 7, in the same area, three “kopysh” were detained with riot police, the cases have already been initiated. Before that, they pretended to be fishermen with SOBR: they took fishing rods in their hands and, on a simple vessel, approached the unsuspecting "water jets". Four people were detained. Seized equipment, boats. Violators were fined 200,000 each,” says Yury Aldoshkin, head of the department for combating illegal amber trafficking.

Investigators know many prospectors by sight, but they need to be caught red-handed. “So we’re playing Cossack robbers: either we’ll set up an ambush at night, or we’ll pretend to be “kopysh” ourselves,” he continues.

There are fewer and fewer craftsmen: before, 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 a year, the court considered protocols of fines totaling about 13 million rubles.Now the government has developed a bill introducing criminal liability for illegal mining of semi-precious stones.

Pirate Tatiana

The Yantarny Coast is one of two places in Russia that has 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 rocks were dumped into the sea - that's why the beach area has grown. 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 has long ended, everyone is peering under their feet. Basically, these are tourists who decided to look for pebbles for fun.

"Well, did you find what?" a female voice calls out to us. The new acquaintance's name is Tatyana.

And she is a real amber pirate: on her head is a hood of the “vest” color, in her ears are earrings, on her neck are beads made of sun stone. In the hands - a device resembling a fishing net.

Fish, however, does not interest her. “With a net, it is more convenient to go after amber than with a net - it is more compact. November is the most suitable month, but today there is nothing to catch here: there was no storm for a long time, and it raises a stone from the bottom. Even better are the teachings of the Baltic Fleet: they stir up the clay well. Then the southwest wind nails the amber, entangled in algae, closer to the shore. That's where you need to aim the net. If you want, try to quit, ”Tatiana suggests and hands over the device.

After several clumsy attempts to cast the line into the sea, I bashfully return the empty net and continue to ask questions. It turns out that Tatyana lives in Yeysk, she dropped in to visit her grandchildren and look for "amber".

“I visit often. This month I collected eight kilograms of "raw". I'm taking it to my local recycler. He makes preparations. Then I send the goods to my home by Russian Post, and they can take them away on the train. The main thing is to seal the parcel well: once, instead of amber, I found tomato paste inside for the same weight.

In Yeysk, I collect beads, bracelets, rosaries, necklaces from blanks and sell them from my hands - this summer I sold for 237 thousand, about a quarter of this amount is an expense, ”says the interlocutor.

She first came to Yantarny in 1990 and worked at the plant for some time. “I remember a dog named King Kong lived in the quarry. When thieves climbed in at night, she quietly ran to a policeman sleeping in a booth nearby and pulled him with her teeth by the half of her overcoat to the crime scene. Unexpected guests always took something edible with them, and the police took food away during the arrest and rewarded the dog for his service. After one such dinner, the dog died - they poisoned him. It's a pity, although it must be confessed, I myself stood "on the nix" while the men climbed behind the stone at night. The booty was divided equally, ”Tatyana admits. She presses her hands to her mouth and demonstrates her signature whistle - a signal of danger.

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

“We stand in the trash, we work”

To the shore, a few kilometers to the west of the beach, a pipe of an amber plant comes out, throwing out waste from mining - pulp, empty clay with water.

The employees of the enterprise do not always succeed in catching all the amber, and sometimes the pipe “spits” amber along with the pulp.

There is always a buzz here. Directly under the roaring chimney, we found 12 people with nets in raincoats and high boots.

“Everyone is hoping for a jackpot. The plant does not take locals for mining: it considers them to be thieves. So we are standing in their trash, catching a stone. It used to throw out large pieces, but a year ago they put traps on the pipe. Now comes across one little thing. We earn a maximum of 50 thousand a month, ”says the unshaven“ sachkolov ”Vitaly and demonstrates a pebble weighing no more than five grams - all the extraction for the day.

A little further away, five more people are standing in a semicircle. They do not answer questions, they look gloomily into the eyes. According to rumors, these are local bandits selling seats at 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 mean to die"

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

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

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

Magical significance was attached to this light and beautiful pebble, different tribes considered it to be pieces of the Sun that fell to the ground, they treated ailments with it, bewitched it with the help of jewelry, conspiracies were made on it. All this exists to some extent now, but the main purpose of this organic material is industry, medicine, electronics, and jewelry.

Ancient ways of extracting amber

Extraction of amber by the “scooping” method

Usually people collected pieces of resin on the seashore. Sea waves often carried them to the beaches, small fragments were found in large numbers on the coasts of the whole world. But over time, there were more and more hunters for amber fragments and people had to fish them out of the water on a boat. Such a fishery was called "scooping", since they caught resin formations with nets. To get to larger pieces, "gouging" was used. This was done with the help of pointed peaks in shallow water. And when the deposits at a shallow depth dried up, it was time for the "wells" - diggings, which were located on the beach area. In the 16th century, the first shallow quarries appeared and the extraction of stone became industrial.

Modern technologies of amber mining

Currently, the development of amber is carried out in large quantities, large companies are engaged in this and use mechanized mining methods, this work has several stages.

Development by hydromonitor and dredgers

Hydromonitor blurs the top layer

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

Water, together with the waste rock, forms a pulp, which is discharged into the sea through pipes with the help of suction dredgers.

The exposed "blue earth" is being developed by a walking excavator. With the help of a ladle, this mass, rich in amber contents, is folded into cone slides and the hydromonitor starts working again, turning this slide into a mud-like slurry.

Amber mining - walking excavator

Dredgers this slurry through the pipe system to the processing plant. Through these manufacturing steps, the precious raw material is subject to wastage - 10 percent of the material is wasted in this process.

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

The final stage of extraction is the sorting of fragments by size, color, content of inclusions, transparency, 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, it can have different shades - green, brown, blue and even white. According to the refraction of light, the pebbles are divided into transparent, opaque, smoky.

The main places of extraction of amber

The main places of extraction of amber are the Baltic states, the Kaliningrad region, Western Ukraine, the Urals. There are deposits in Mexico, Japan, China, Romania and Sicily. But the main area of ​​occurrence of large deposits is the coast of the Baltic Sea. These stones are exported, their quality is valued all over the world. The remaining deposits are of no commercial importance.

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