Amber has been known to people since ancient times. This is not surprising because the rock itself was formed as a result of climate change that occurred in the Upper Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs dominated the earth. Amber is organic mineral... It is composed of the resin of ancient conifers. The gum, due to the warming climate, flowed into the soil and solidified, forming deposits of the mineral. This process has provided humanity with this amazingly beautiful stone.

Our distant ancestors not only knew amber, but also highly valued it. Throughout ancient history, it has been an important item of trade and exchange. Archaeologists have found pieces of the mineral in the dwellings of people belonging to the Upper Paleolithic, and this is 40-10 thousand years ago. In ancient Egypt, it was used not only for decoration, but also for mummification. In addition, ancient authors in their works talk about the trade in amber, about the places of its extraction and about the magical properties.

History and methods of amber mining

The history of stone mining goes back many hundreds of years. It is reliably known about how it was mined in antiquity. This mining method is very simple. People walked along the seashore and collected amber themselves in places where it was thrown out by waves. By the XIV century, for the extraction of the mineral, they began to use net... With the help of it, people fished out the stone directly from the sea, where it got entangled in seaweed. In addition, the mineral was taken from the seabed using special devices. All these methods of extraction are very simple and anyone could collect it on their own.

The amber trade developed steadily. People came up with new and more efficient ways to mine stone. Mineral mining flourished in the 17th century by land... On the banks of the rich in amber, pits were dug, deepening further and further, until the stone floated to the surface.

Since the 19th century, we can talk about the industrial extraction of amber. At this time, the first mine depth of 30 meters. How amber is mined now? The most productive for the extraction of the mineral turned out to be an open-pit method, which makes it possible to extract it with minimal effort. To this day, there is the "Kaliningrad Amber Combine", which uses this method for the extraction of stone.

The coast of the Baltic Sea is extremely rich in minerals, which is why the plant's quarries are located there. Amber mining takes place in several stages:

  1. with the help of a hydraulic gun, water is supplied to the quarry under pressure. The jet of liquid washes away the amber-rich soil layer;
  2. the mass containing the mineral is sent through a pipeline to the processing plant, where it is immersed in a concentrated salt solution. In it, the stone itself floats to the surface, since it is lighter than water;
  3. collected stones are sorted by shape, size, color and sent for processing.

The uniqueness of the mineral

Amber is an amazing and unique stone. It has its own characteristics:

Stone processing

Before processing, the stone does not look attractive, but when it is polished and polished, it takes on the look we are used to. These manipulations are carried out both using special drums and manually. It has a low hardness, due to which it lends itself well to processing, but at the same time it makes it brittle. In any case, t Only the processed stone, begins to play with new colors.

The processed mineral is re-sorted, because the range of its application is very wide. Large stones are used to make souvenirs, smaller minerals are suitable for the production of jewelry and bijouterie, and small substandard minerals are needed by the industry.

Amber is used in such industries as medicine, woodworking, perfumery and paint and varnish industries.

There are few amber deposits and some of them have not been developed. The largest deposits of the mineral are located in the Russian Federation, in the Krasnodar Territory. It is in this place that the Krasnodar Amber Plant is mining the stone. The rest of the known deposits of the mineral are scattered in the United States and Canada, in Asia and Europe. But the stone mined in the Dominican Republic is of particular value. It is there that a special type of amber of blue and green shades is found. Due to the presence of rich deposits of the mineral in the soil, it will continue to delight the inhabitants of the earth with its splendor.

Let's talk about what amber is, how and where it is mined.

This resin will take a very long time before it becomes stone.

For a long time there was heated debate among scientists about what amber is. But now it is known for sure.

Amber is a resin. It is mined as a fossil mineral. Used as and in. In ancient times, this mineral was used as a fuel because it burns well.

Due to the different climatic conditions, the mineral has its own unique color in each area. Therefore, the Baltic stone cannot be confused with the Caribbean stone or with any other. Each stone has its own regional characteristics.

The origin of amber

Even ancient scientists came to the conclusion that amber is of plant origin. The Roman scientists Pliny and Tacitus pointed to a specific plant smell when rubbing a mineral, as well as small animals. Tacitus believed that amber is the frozen sap of plants that got into the sea.

The 16th century German mineralogist Agricola believed that the mineral was inorganic in origin.

In the 18th century, the theory of plant origin was confirmed by the Swede Linnaeus, a famous botanist. A little later, the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov came to the same conclusion.

Scientists have proved that the amber stone, which is now being mined, was formed more than 40 million years ago from amber-bearing pines, that is, it is of plant origin. At that time they grew in North America, Greenland, Eurasia. Under the influence of climatic conditions, resin was released, which petrified and fell over the years. The incoming sea carried her away from the shores.

Although amber is found all over the planet, only 20 parts of the world have enough amber to support profitable mining. Currently most amber is mined in the Baltics, and that is business.

Extraction of amber is a complicated and difficult business. For the resin to turn into amber, it must be buried underground, usually in wet clay or sandy sedimentary rock.

Extraction of Baltic amber has its own history. The oldest method of extraction was "scooping": pieces of amber were caught from boats with nets. It was replaced by "gouging": tearing amber from the bottom of shallow water with the help of sharp peaks. By the 16th century, people had learned to mine amber from shallow wells and small quarries in the beach area.

In the middle of the 20th century in the area of ​​the village. Palmniken (now the village of Yantarny) began industrial production through mines and adits. In 1876, a repository of amber mined in the depths was discovered: 45 kg of stone were hidden under a large boulder. However, in 1922, due to the difficulty of mining, the underground workings were mothballed.

The beach deposit is being developed with the help of a water jet and dredgers. A water jet with a powerful jet destroys the overburden (covering the amber-bearing rock strata). A mixture of water and waste rock - pulp is formed. The slurry is discharged into the sea through a pipeline by a dredger.

The powerful walking excavator then excavates and stores the exposed blue earth in cones. The powerful jet of the hydro-monitor also erodes the cones of amber-bearing rock to the state of a liquid slurry, which the dredger feeds through pipes to the processing plant. With this method, as a result of erosion of the upper part of the "blue earth" when removing overburden, crushing amber with an excavator bucket, when supplying amber through a pipeline to the processing plant up to 10% of amber is lost.

The technological scheme of production at the Primorskoye field is slightly different: after stripping, the “blue earth” is selected by a high-performance multi-bucket excavator, walking through the open pit, and is conveyed along a conveyor to the processing plant. As a result of the replacement of hydraulic transport with a conveyor system amber losses are significantly reduced.

After the amber is extracted from the rock, it is sorted by size, shape, color and the inclusions it contains. Thousands of small pieces are removed from the ground, but sometimes large specimens weighing several kg are also found.

Amber of warm yellow and golden hues is found most often. Occurs and blue amber... Even less common green amber... Perhaps the color diversity is due to the difference in the chemical constituents of the resin, as well as the minerals in the soil. Amber can be both transparent and opaque.

What is made of amber?

Most often amber is used for the production of jewelry... Even in antiquity, pendants, buttons, beads, as well as more complex objects were made. Amber was widely used for the manufacture of religious attributes. Also beautiful crafts are made of amber... You can see a variety of products in the specialized store "Amber Palace".

AND for medical purposes amber has been used since ancient times. It is used to treat both internal and external diseases. Perhaps, such healing properties of amber are associated with the succinic acid contained in it, which is a unique biostimulant. In fact, only Baltic amber contains a significant amount of this acid; it can be considered the only species with these medicinal properties.

The unique composition of succinate is the reason that a large proportion of this amber is processed chemically. Pure succinic acid is used for the production of medicines and also used as a strategic material on nuclear submarines and rocket engines.

Amber oil and amber varnish are by-products of the process of succinic acid isolation. They are used in high quality varnishes and paints. Amber varnish is essential for the restoration of the gilded roofs of architectural monuments.

In the Middle Ages, glasses were made from amber, and now some manufacturers of optical equipment use amber to improve the quality of optical lenses.

Amber, especially pressed amber, is used as insulating material in electrical equipment. Amber rods were used in a device that measured radiation levels after the Chernobyl accident.

If you are mining amber, you can make sets of stones that you can sell to those who wish - jewelers and collectors.

You can prepare a manual for processing amber, describe how to make jewelry out of it. Putting together a set - a manual, pieces of amber, and special materials. Such as amber polishing paste. Paraffin, crushed chalk, amber dust. Tools - a flat file, a piece of felt or felt, sanding paper. Unprocessed pieces of amber, small, one centimeter or less in size, that is, the cheapest, can be offered for sale with such sets for making jewelry on your own.

You can supplement the set with various more interesting amber stones in accordance, for example, with their classification:

1. Transparent - yellowish and colorless.

2. Smoky - unclear with transparent areas.

3. Bastard - waxy yellow, translucent.

4. Bone - opaque ivory amber.

5. Foamy - light, opaque, finely porous, the most viscous and very highly decorative.

To extract amber, you need to register a company in the country where you plan to mine and obtain a mining permit. Unauthorized extraction and sale of illegally mined amber without a permit (license) may threaten with criminal prosecution.

Amber properties

Amber composition: a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, resins, succinic acid and oils. The percentage of components present in amber is typically:

78.6% - carbon;

10.5% hydrogen;

10.5% oxygen;

0.4% - sulfur.

Crystallographic system: amorphous, occasionally crystalline formations.

Optical properties: isotropic (independence of material properties from the direction of measurement).

Refractive index: 1,54.

Density: 1.08 (average).

Hardness: 2.0-2.5 on the Mohs scale.

Cleavage: absent, fracture, less often splinter.

Shine of amber: oily, resinous, less often waxy.

Amber colors: opaque white, lemon yellow, golden, red-brown; transparent colorless, pale yellow, bright red; deep red to black; very rarely green (transparent and opaque) and blue.

Luminescent properties: glow effect in reflected light, ultraviolet light.

What is amber

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

Mineralogists have established that the tear of the sea depths 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.

Amber properties

The hardened dew that has fallen from the sky is a beautiful stone. But he is able not only to please the eye, but also to heal. Lithotherapists know that a gem can:

  • relieve headache;
  • stabilize the state of meteorological people during magnetic storms;
  • improve the work of the gastrointestinal tract;
  • positively affect the state of the cardiovascular system;
  • heal joint diseases.

Constant wearing of amber beads enhances the effect of drugs in case of dysfunction of the thyroid gland. Tincture of semi-precious stones helps to get rid of colds and respiratory diseases. Mineral plates are placed on the temples during migraine attacks, the pain goes away.

When carrying out rituals that allow psychics to look into the future, psychics always use amber balls or pyramids. These magical items greatly enhance the energy and allow you to quickly get answers to the necessary questions.

The 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. Insects, small animals, leaves, twigs often got into these sticky secretions. They stayed in a piece of resin and froze with it. Now there are quite a few copies with such content. They are exclusive and highly regarded by collectors.

Where and how amber is mined

Amber is mined on the territory of several states:


There are deposits of the "gift of the sun" on the island of Sicily, in Japan, Poland, and the Australian Republic.

To the question: "How amber is mined?", Geologists answer as follows. The way of extracting a mineral from the earth's interior depends on where it lies. It happens:

  1. Underwater - when solidified dew that has fallen from the sky is in the soil located in water bodies. First, the topsoil is removed with a powerful water jet. The soil underneath is fed through a pipeline to the processing plant, where workers manually search for amber.
  2. Ground - if the gems are hidden in the bowels of the land. Then the foundation pit breaks out, the earth gets out of it. After dividing it into stones and soil, amber is isolated from the first component.
  3. Marine - a layer of sand is removed from the bottom of the sea with dredges. And then a combustible stone is mined from the lower layers.

In all cases, it is necessary to extract organic minerals using modern technology. Sometimes the extraction is carried out in an artisanal way. How this is done in Poland can be seen in the video.

Large deposits of amber

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

Illegal mining

Amber is also mined by black geologists. They remove the topsoil with an excavator. Then amber is caught with special nets.

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

Scopes of amber

Use Radiant Gems in several areas. They are made of:

  • interior items (vases, ashtrays, decorative figures);
  • Jewelry;
  • mosaic pictures and icons.

Sometimes caskets and various surfaces inside living quarters are encrusted with a radiant gem. And specimens of low quality are used in the chemical industry to create acids, rosins. They, in turn, are required in the perfumery, pharmaceutical, paint and varnish fields.

Mineralogists distinguish several varieties of a radiant gem, depending on the color and degree of transparency:

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

Amber jewelry

Jewelers create various amber jewelry:


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. Usually 1 carat of natural stone is priced from 5 to 15 dollars.

Beads 60 centimeters long cost around 4000 rubles. Braided bracelet - from 500 to 900, silver pendant –1500–2000, gold earrings –15000, men's cufflinks –2000-2500 rubles.

Commercial amber mining is not carried out in many countries.

Important information

Illegal methods of amber confiscation 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 get hold of 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 you can buy a truly high-quality jewel.

Interesting video: What is amber?

What is amber, how this sun stone is mined - these are important questions, and even of national importance. Especially for some countries - suppliers of sun stone, where amber mining is regulated by law. The highest level of interest is due to 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).

The primary ones today are Fushunskoye in China, sites in the Far East and amber mining in Alaska (USA), Canada, and 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 sea deposits are widespread along the shores of not only the 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, which stretches from the border of the 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.

World's leading gem suppliers

Data-lazy-type = "image" data-src = "https://karatto.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/yantar-5.jpg" alt = "(! LANG: amber succinite" width="250" height="168">!}
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 religious 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 per 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, which is 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 the ancient man saw a noticeable golden-honey pebble under his feet, a lot of sea waters flooded to the coast. 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 seaweed from the depths of the sea. They were replaced by pikes 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 supplied 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.