belton turkic and the chain of precious and semiprecious stone deposits the. south has long been known as the gemstone belt of the. north to the. defunct. anatoly in a forest ranger lives in a log cabin near the abandoned mine shaft which was famous for its rich deposits in the nineteenth century. crystal. 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 great rewards for some practitioners. look the part that means the. north east. west. 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 play a part in this when you go along a vein come across a hollow with the sticks cross over each other like this. what we don't know is the depth of the vein.

to give you get closer to the contacts this is where the vein comes close 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 in gets out of the service. in the old days. here. just now. they know what to do and their intuition helps dave determine the vanes 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 cts thick sticky substance these are not used for jury they're mainly for collectors if you diggers patient and lucky enough 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 mountain. local people regard her as the patron saint of diggers. she appears as a magical lizard wearing a golden crown. my dear kind lady 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 stone first i was skeptical about it but when i tried it i sold the works.

this stretch of highway follows an underground strip of rock packed with emeralds beryl and alexandra de 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 the emirates and some of the veins are forty to fifty metres below ground a long time ago the french dug for emeralds and beach 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 talk of a river produced a geological sensation in the early nineteenth century but it isn't one thousand one stumbled on pale aquamarine colored stone. it took them to your concert and

work where scientists said they were. in the summer of eighteen thirty one emeralds were found right here on the banks a list river and exactly in first bits these unique aroldis were found. jim stone experts regard emeralds found in the year olds as 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 amaryllis the supposed to be a green color i want to look at this one you see a trace of blue in that this means they come from a pit yes there is a 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 barrel 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 pit 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 garden piles of refuse that abandoned mine shafts. files you see in the background have been flushed only once 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 if. 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 close if occasional

. 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 ana fizzed recognized as an expert on the certification of emeralds and other precious stones the certificate guarantees that the customer is not buying so-called refined beryllium or to put it plainly fake emeralds. emeralds are a variety of. only different color. painting radioisotopes and 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.

cutting alone produces unique gems from emeralds and more modest semi-precious stones like topaz amethyst and other colored crystals. stone splinter or even a plain looking one is given a new lease on life important as well as local stones are cut here but local stones no matter how plain they might be are dear to the masters hearts. closer to the soul. because. there's a fountain in front of the museum in the small courtyard visitors are immediately drawn to its rich. covered chunks of greenish barrel it stands as a monument to the locals love for their.

just. to get live. entertainment

and. high production simply. because. this is the way. people. take. a million. lives. the old village at the very center of the year old. legend has it that a long time ago women and children used to wash ruby and sapphire stones at the cattle watering hole today college graduates 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. prospector with years of experience. he takes the students. a hundred years ago. show me. you can see right through. the students look like. the rock hunting for beautiful stones fires anyone with

enthusiasm once they get their hands a bit dirty. the students and their professors in the praise of the professional. this is a captivating and useful experience feel more confident. even from the way. this . can be taught in the classroom. only through personal contacts that each small find is a delight for them like. 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 and to produce nickel. what you've got there. oh yeah it's real big family well worth the effort. 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 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 vein. as for you pena you stay put for a while. sometimes people do get inside the vein this is dangerous. numerous gemstone pits are scattered in the forests around the village but few people know where gemstones were mined in the old days. you did not mean what it was really this transgender is for exploration he would accuse the merchants open and workman mind of the beauty they were off the top 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 mill are 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 mind stones in these pits or on sisters 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 religion a chance to build one or two more shots handling semiprecious stones most of the people working in cramped conditions using more now 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 group as you can't give it up just like that when these stones are like little kids when you first hold them in your hands they're rough but you know what you need to work and polish them and only then did they look so much. these my kids polished and sparkling with you looking modeless. several times a year stone cutters come to you could have been born 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 those in the urals work with local stones everybody is trying to make goods for popular consumption. there's a brisk trade in melaka where from zero 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 euros 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 stones 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 in the beginning on made several attempts to tame stones but nothing came of it. as a result i had a whole bucket. 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. when i had a mosque two thousand diatoms i realize that this fine collection should belong to my hometown and everybody must have

a chance to see its. is the stone afficionado in 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. if. you. talk to these colored courts. they're really wonderful they help me get any problems or misfortune. with. many of these stones were mind at the same place where the legendary money 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 all his secrets or he was the

first and only one to find. he found for twelve carats. just couldn't find a single one in many years until a ship shy of 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 what nothing about pits that's on. until issued shy of joining city give a local 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 to the 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 joins the corners 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. for you should be done very carefully if you've got clever fingers you'll make

a nice brooch very beautiful. sciences yetunde ravel all the mysteries of the gemstone belt. researchers studying all gemstone pits mapped them according the accounts of pioneers who often refused to disclose all of their secrets. here you. don't believe in mysteries a mystery is simply so. thing you don't know a good miner has no secrets except a place where he's working. there are many pits to be found in the gemstone belt. but their contents remain unknown. nobody knows. 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 the same units guy a pit is a case in point it's gemstone deposit as not been exhausted. the winch is

still in good order the pain has not even peeled off and the rope remained 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 point was forty meters deep with that one a large nast of crystals was found at 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.t. 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 stones are just waiting for

someone to rediscover their unique beauty. this place makes out and managed to escape. but another is it sparkles and unexplainable interest. in a place where supernatural things are happening. but . does. not.

torturer have total impunity they can do everything that they want and nothing will happen to them voices of fury over israel putting an alleged torture in charge of policing arab affairs in jerusalem. and saddam means are all the rage as homegrown russian chemist surf the web for recipes to cook up the party drug for easy bucks. and odds are high for the pro russian minority party has lots of fans vote for a new parliament amid the worst economic downturn to date. live

from moscow here with r.t. and nominees to now way with our top story this hour the appointment of an infamous israeli interrogator to a high ranking police post has sent shock waves among human rights groups known among in may says captain george who's accused of numerous cases of torture and abuse of arabs now that he's in charge of arab affairs many palestinians fear for their lives paula slayer reports. kidnapped israeli commandos. they came to my country to my learn to my house before the owners of my children. mostafa to ronnie spent the next eighteen years in a secret prison later dubbed israel's of a grade and his interrogator a name that still since chills down the spines of prisoners. i have to remember captain george he personally participated in the torture and abuse of prisoners.