schaff scarred the secrets of gemstones still buried deep beneath the earth. the border between europe and asia the word girls men belt an old turkey and a chain of precious and semiprecious stone deposits that follows the mountain range for hundreds of kilometers from north to south has long been known as the gemstone belt of the. heart of the gemstone delta some any matters north of yucatan the landscape is dotted with defunct pits. anatoly in a forest ranger lives in a log cabin near the abandoned simeone in skye a mine shaft which was famous for its rich deposits in the nineteenth century. the most valuable gems can be found here.

crystal and more able. to copper wires bent at the right angle and placed inside metal tubes point to a gemstone vein. this may be geological prospecting on the cheap but it's a method that's reefed great rewards for some practitioners. look the part that means the vein runs somewhere from northeast. to southwest. as soon as we move away from the vein and then go back to their initial position. here they tell us there are lots of veins there all over the place here's another one and. as soon as we move away they go back to their initial position i think the energy coming from the people in the earth's magnetic field and play a part in this when you go along a vein come across a hollow with the sticks process over each other like this. what we don't know is

the depth of the vein. to. get closer to the contacts this is where the vein comes closest to the surface . where you won't find anything but splinters through. three diggers are looking for blue aquamarine crystals in an old pit looking for gems as these diggers way of life many of them do it as a sideline but some are full time professionals. here it gets out of the surface. in the old days veins came out right here. just now. they know what to do and their intuition helps dave determine the veins direction and now they're trying to break through to it as they remove a pile of stones. there are some pretty big chunks here.

we examine them. and break them up. there might be some crystals in the. blue crystals inside milk white courts a sick and sticky substance these aquamarine are not used for jury they're mainly for collectors if a digger's patient in the uk you know you might find something like this. all these miners are certain they'll hit their streak of luck some day and many even seek support from the mistress of the copper. local people regard the patron saint of diggers. she appears as a magical lizard wearing a golden crown. my dear kind lady to you in all humility with an open heart not with evil thoughts please give me

a nice stone don't leave me out to dry help me find the church's stone first i was skeptical about it but when i tried as i sold i had worked. this stretch of highway follows an underground strip of rock packed with emeralds beryl and alexandra the year old emerald banda some thirty kilometers wide and about two kilometers in length this is the birthplace of geologist. emeralds are the main line of his research. from time immemorial people here have literally been sitting on them or some of the veins are forty to fifty meters below ground a long time ago the french dug for emeralds and beets they used to be nearby you might say people are walking on emeralds but you can see for yourself. i d's swampy banks of the river produced a geological sensation in the early nineteenth century. but he says in one thousand

one stumbled on pale as colored stone. he took them to your concert in boric where scientists said they were emeralds in the summer of eight hundred thirty one emeralds were found right here on the banks of this river and exactly in first bits these unique emeralds were found. jim stone experts regard emeralds found in the urals is the best in the world they use a special scale to assess the color and transparency of a stone but there's another special quality of these your old chum stones that won't appear on any scale why did they see it in the middle of the supposed to be a green color i will create a look at this one you see a trace of blue in that this means they come from a pit yes this blue streak tells you that they were dug out from. the village of mali the emerald capital of the year old it's seen better days beryl was

produced here in the soviet era a strategic material used in nuclear reactors before the early one nine hundred eighty s. it was mined in an open pit later an underground mine was built on the site. parents live in militia. his father is a mining engineer he spent a lifetime working in the chefs. with the. produce be really a more strategically important enterprise. in those days up emeralds where just a byproduct so to speak the breakup of the soviet union in the economic downturn that followed in its wake eventually brought production to a halt demolish if pitt has been closed since one thousand nine hundred three its equipment is gradually falling into disrepair only heavy duty pumps are still in operation pumping out subterranean water from the pit. scientists say some seven

hundred kilograms of emeralds valued at twenty four million dollars could be produced here each year but the pit remains closed meanwhile law enforcement officials say that up to fifteen thousand carats of your all emeralds are illegally traded annually supplied by informal miners who take emeralds from wherever they can find them most often it's from guarded piles of refuse that abandoned mine shafts. files you see in the background have been flushed only once but second flushing will reveal that the roskilde gemstones their so-called crude crystal that . these waste piles have been flushed three times but they no longer belong to anybody some call them the miracle field others the field of fools but. you want to know why the place has this name anyone without special qualifications can find gems there would be the envy of any collector now here's

a valuable stone. it seems to be a bare ileum crystal it doesn't look too good as it's covered with dust and claims that. it isn't fact an emerald in accordance with international clothes if occasionally. but here in the urals is just called the emerald green or. some jewelry firms indian ones in particular are only too ready to buy such cheap stones they're specially treated and then resold at the price of emeralds. aleksandr cell of on a fist generally recognized as an expert on the certification of emeralds and other precious stones the certificate guarantees that the customer is not mining so-called refined beryllium or to put it plainly fake emeralds. emeralds are a variety of. only different color. painting radioisotopes on other methods will change their color. has set up

a certification center in the town of study and. in addition he's founded a private museum of minerals and jewelry complete with gem cutting workshops the art of stone cutting alone produces unique gems from emeralds and more modest semi-precious stones like topaz amethyst and other colored crystals. each gemstone splinter or even a plain looking one is given a new lease on life imported as well as local stones are cut here but local stones no matter how plain they might be are dearer to the master's hearts. gemstone is closer to the soul i feel like its soul is warm maybe because it's rushing through and. there's a fountain in front of the museum in the small courtyard visitors are immediately drawn to its rich decoration covered in uncut chunks of greenish barrel it stands as a monument to the locals love for their gemstones. cultures

that so much could be going to make a lot of people a very unhappy new leaders in the world polarized opinions more than venezuelan president hugo chavez is denounced by critics as a dictator what does the future. nineteen anglin and friends try to reason with hitler germany demands it's way they all thought they had created a safety net for themselves nineteen thirty nine the whole of the. efforts to establish a system of collective security nine hundred thirty eight failed and it's still on the agenda today. the lessons to be learned from the munich agreement on. the old village of shaitan because at the very center of the year old gemstone belt legend has it that a long time ago women and children used to wash ruby and sapphire stones at the

catalyst watering hole today college undergraduates would be geologists come here from moscow each summer to get hands on training they stay at the house which once belonged to a local priest alex on that part oval office a prospector with years of experience. he takes the students on a guided tour of an old quarry where he tells them about the nuts and bolts of his job. they go to a place where piles of pink crystals were uncovered a hundred years ago and where nicole was produced in the soviet era russia. the middle layer. don't touch the bottom one.

show me. you can see right through it but it's. the students look like seasoned digger says they flush the rock hunting for beautiful still inspires anyone with enthusiasm once they get their hands a bit dirty. the students and their professors in the praise of the professional digger at this this is a captivating and useful experience they feel more confident this is obvious even from the way they move about the skills they get here in the classroom. only through personal contacts that each small find is a delight for them like a valuable gift in a different era sacks full of much bigger trauma lines were hauled from here to village fairs it's impossible to estimate how many of these were incinerated him to produce nickel. what you've

got there. oh yeah it's real big family well worth the effort. now there's a praiseworthy stone. well more or less how are we going to divide them among us. from time to time the pit steep sides reveal gemstone outcroppings this dangerous rift was discovered only a few years ago diggers got away with the crystals in no time but they were at risk of being buried alive in a massive landslide. ok let's get in there to see if anything is left of the vane. what ok as for you pin you know you stay put for a while. sometimes people do get inside the vein but this is dangerous and. numerous gemstone pits are scattered in the forests around the village but few people know where gemstones were mined in the old days.

going to them it was here that this trench here is for exploration he would accuse the merchant workmen mind of the beauty they were off to topaz and barrel with but they were only the top layer there are several pits here who would fit you thirty to forty percent of them and certainly not more than fifty percent have been worked out there may be down there. a mill the belong in the merchant who own the pits stood here by the riverside a long time ago stories of treasures are well known but all that remains of the miller wall fragments and old grindstones lying in the grass the mill produced more than simple flour. for those of us here is his silver mill it made flour but they also can the hope of finding gold in it is there and they mined stones in these pages or ancestors did work hard

but then the stones had a heart of value they worked like titans and they got paid for the job their work was well compensated. nearly every village and a chance to build one or two more shots handling semiprecious stones most of the people working in cramped conditions using worn out obsolete equipment are self-taught craftsmen. these workshops are anything but cost effective they can survive because marginal people don't stay long. it's not an easy job if you're doing it you've got to look at a new booth if you can keep it up just like that when you have these stones are like little kids when you first hold them and your hands that are rough but you know what you need to work and polish them and only then do they look so much.

these are my kids polished and sparkling with you looking marvelous. several times a year stone cutters come to you considering board to attend a fair featuring serpent tonight rhoda knight jasper cornelian and many more their wares reflect the whole spectrum of semiprecious stones found in the urals these are pieces of art made from landscape jasper from the southern year olds and these are all lumps of rock crystal from the northern end of the same mountain range other tables display deskilling jewelry from the traditional ural school most of the masters and diggers have known one another for years there aren't that many new faces. only a handful of monsters in the urals work with local stones everybody is trying to make good for popular consumption. there's a brisk trade in melaka where firms that year at the fair the euro master scoffed

at african malakai because of its banal striped pattern. that used to be mined in the euro's is only found in museums local malakai deposits have been completely exhausted. what do people take home from the euro's gemstones jasper and mel a kind those are the stones they so shape with are original but this malecon is from africa most people are well aware of the fact they're still willing to buy an . artist a lego pile of cards flowers from stone he matches and with this petals with leaves made of nephrite nephrite leaves look exactly like the real thing pots and all. tiny silver pins are used to hold parts of the flower together because the glue doesn't last long alone the flower itself is more durable and it can never weather

. the light radiates through its petals and the flower seems alive but looks are deceptive as the lifeless flower is hard and cool to the touch. of the stone as. if it doesn't feel like being a flower it's going to be one at the beginning on made several attempts to tame stones but nothing came of it. as a result i had a whole bucket of stone flows and leaves only then did i realize that stones could never be time to. display at the museum of stone. collector owns these pieces. his collection isn't limited to. he's devoted a lifetime to it. around the world recognize that his unique municipal authorities have helped him set up a museum of his own. on how to master

more than two thousand items i realize that this fine collection should belong to my hometown and everybody must have a chance to see it's. his own right widely known in the. his home collection is nothing spectacular but each item reveals a bit about him. just look at these sugar like crystals. very unusual. and this is an image that's jim. out in the open. in. you. i talk to these colored courts. and they're really wonderful. forget any problems or misfortune. with. many of these stones were

mind at the same place where the legendary mining engineer didn't have found gemstones one hundred years ago academics went to for advice and he made great contributions to geology though he never revealed his secrets or he was the first and only one to find. he found. twelve carrots. just couldn't find a single one in many years until he should shy have devoted himself to studying old maps and the legacy of past mining engineers by retracing their forgotten paths. there are no records of the legacy of our ancestors none were nothing but pits that's all. until issued shy of joining city give a look and director of the rez have mineralogical reserve on frequent visits to the pits to assess their deposits. exploring the pits is going to

require a lot of digging. there's nothing but barren rock here no crystallization. there is something left. we have to find some big samples. ok let's get on with the job. diggers rely on telltale signs rather than intuition they know that if they don't see such signs there's no point in messing about in that vein here is a very thin vein its center than your little finger there will be a bulge but make no mistake about it where it joins the torch vein over there crystals all over the place i'm telling you. this pit was once thought to be empty

but there are still some treasures to be found if the crystal is flushed and polished it will begin to sparkle. should be done very carefully if you've got clever fingers you'll make a nice brooch very beautiful if. science is yet on ravel all the mysteries of the gemstone belt. researchers studying old gemstone pits mapped them according the accounts of pioneers who often refuse to disclose all of their secrets. here myself don't believe in mysteries a mysterious simply so. thing you don't know a good miner has no secrets except a place where he's working that there are many pits to be found in the gemstone belt. but their contents remain unknown with nobody knows. what. day in and day out they go from one pit to another driving an all terrain

vehicle through the forests where their forefathers also mind. the secrets of old miners are being put back on the maps this immune and sky pit is a case in point is gemstone deposit has not been exhausted. the winch is still in good order the pain has not even peeled off and the rope remains from the soviet times if you still find. all we need to do is to put the engine on place as soon as the engine is here the winch will start working. but. records say this piece was forty meters deep when a large nast of crystals was founded a depth of only fourteen meters. this means that the vein has good prospects but the because apparently they were planning to mine stones at a lower level if the p.v. is to be restored and made up aeration all this will require an outlay of at least one hundred million roubles but it's not yet clear who will furnish that kind of

capital. if water is pumped out miners could regain access to shafts that produced riches for over a hundred years. deep beneath the earth's surface gemstones are just waiting for someone to rediscover their unique beauty. hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world

has been seeing from the streets of canada. shining corporations are the day.

in vietnam she's available in international her tone. for some photos don't include the intercontinental hanoi westlake otoh shirts and hanoi hilton can only oprah. sedona sweet. public royal saigon hotel caravel hotel sheraton so i go and hotel in times hotel so i go in the leaves of a little in the lot and resort and spa. soon which brighton. movie about someone from phones to impressions.

he's fun starts on t.v. . the end of years of abuse and neglect for a russian boy whose parents allegedly sold him drugs. plus ukraine's leader gets ultimate control after the high court rules that a power shift of parliament was on the constitution and. it is back to basics he drinks politics as the country is now returning to the original constitution of nine hundred ninety six join us for more details from ukraine's capital kiev. the race is on a rocket powered dream service as russia vows to be the first nation to own and operate a hotel in outer space details on. out on the basis that gratia and the u.s. have been told all outstanding issues on russia's meteor that the said all about.

in twenty minutes. live from moscow this is r.t. welcome to the program a russian boy whose adoptive parents allegedly sold him for drugs in the caribbean has returned to his home country twelve year old denise years of abuse and neglect after being abandoned in the dominican republic by his russian guardians son buckman is following developments for us here at r.t. he arrived with pavol us stock of the russian. for the protection of children and throughout the sort of press conference given. to the airport he stood behind mr starr called while mr was talk of took the questions so obviously a bit of a daunting experience for a twelve year old boy to be stood in front of a.