anatoly 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. bend 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.

that means the. north east. west. move away from the. position. here they tell us there are lots of veins there all over the place here's another one. 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 we come across a hollow where the sticks prosser over each other like this. what we don't know is the depth of the vein. 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 it gets out of the service. in the old days. right 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 a thick and 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. 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 folds 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 it i sold the works. this stretch of highway follows an underground strip of rock packed with emeralds

beryl and alexandra. 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 metres 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 the swampy banks of the river produced a geological sensation in the early nineteenth century. but he says in one thousand one stumbled on pale apple marine colored stone. he took them to your concert in newark 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 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 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 the emerald capital of the year olds 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. post parents live in militia. his father is a mining engineer he spent

a lifetime working in the chefs. with the. produce a more strategically important enterprise. in those days. were just a byproduct so to speak the break up 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 garden piles of refuse that abandoned mine shafts. piles you see in the background have been flushed only once flushing will reveal that the roskilde gemstones their so called crude crystals 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 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 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 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 important 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. is closer to the soul if you look at solar maybe because it's russian. 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 a monument to the locals love for their gemstones. wealthy british.

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it. the old village of 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 alexander prospector with years of experience. he takes the students on a guided tour of an old. place where piles of pink. covered a hundred years ago and. show me. you can see right through. the students look like seasoned digger says they flush 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 digger. this is a captivating and useful experience feel more confident this is all even from the way. 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 sacks full of much bigger maligns were called from here to village fairs is. impossible to estimate how many of these were incinerated in for an asus to produce nickel. but. see 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. that is impressive let's get in there to see if anything is left of the vein. but as for you pin you know 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. we did not know what it was really this transgender is for exploration he would accuse the merchant men mind of the beauty they were off the top barrel but they

were only the top layer there are several pits here who would fit you thirty to forty percent of them and certainly more than fifty percent have been worked out some of which there may be down there. a mill that belong to 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. from the. here is his silver mill it made flower but they also can the hope of finding gold in it is there and they mined stones in these pits wood with 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 the work was

well compensated. diligent gemstone built 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 four shops 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 as you can't give it up just like that when you have these stones are like little kids when you first hold them and your hands they're rough but you know what you need to work and polish them and only then do they look so modeless. these are my kids polished and sparkling. looking model s.

. several times a year stone cutters come to you considering board to attend a fair featuring serpents a night road a night jasper cornelian and many more their wares reflect the whole spectrum of semiprecious stones found in the euro else 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. 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 realise that stones could never be time to. display at the museum of stones and. a celebrated 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. a physicist 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. you. talk to these colored courts. 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 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. you 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 what nothing about pips. until issued shy of joining city gave a local director of the rez of 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 it's thinner 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 rose very beautiful. sciences yet on ravel all the mysteries of the gemstone belt. researchers studying old gemstone pits mapped them according the accounts of pioneers who often refused to disclose all of their secrets. by myself don't believe in mysteries a mystery is simply so. think you don't know a good miner has no secrets except the place where he's working. there are many pits to be found in the gemstone belt. but their contents remain unknown. 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 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 and if you still find. people 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 with that one a large nast of crystals was found at a depth of only fourteen metres. this means that the main has a good prospect 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

chefs 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.

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collection. of stories of. decades in charge the president says he trusted. russia. east with a major china helping. a double edged sword. deadly drug. swathes of opium poppies.

the top stories from the week long serving mayor was shown the door by the president this last week said he lost confidence in. the capital's chief. behind a controversial legacy. but hated by others as. yes but he's going to miss you i decided to dismiss the mayor of moscow the decree i signed states that i as president have lost trust in your english cough. wants to project power the phone support to the top was hard to come by a socialist you know there's always the professional relations between the president and moscow men had worsened meanwhile the man is subordinate to the president and not the other way around certain steps should have been taken to return the situation we're back to normal so where did it all go wrong i got an.