AMBER SECRETS OF BELARUS!

Ignorantia nоn est argumentum - ignorance is not proof.

The funny thing is that r eologists has long been talk about a single Baltic - Dnieper amber province . Findings of amber on the territory of Belarus have been known for a long time. The overwhelming majority of them are confined to the south-west of the country, mainly to the territory of Brest Polesie... but representatives of official geology in the Republic of Bashkortostan do not recognize amber in the republic ... however, this does not prevent free miners in the Republic of Bashkortostan from looking for it ...
AMBER MINING IN RB "... On the black market in Belarus you can find amber on sale. Sellers claim that the amber is Belarusian. In e it's hard to believe. In Belarus there are no known enterprises for the development of industrial amber. But scientists have confirmed that there are amber deposits here. It turns out that they learned about this back in19 80s. But where did this gem come from here? In fact, there is no place for him on the Belarusian territory. Near Brest, in the village. Leninsky is a peat briquetting plant. It was here, on abandoned sites, after peat extraction, pebbles of different colors began to come across. People walked and literally stumbled over yellow boulders. But no one knew what it was. Later, geologists found that it wasT amber stone. People began to come here with shovels, hoping to find something. They were often lucky. They came across pieces of sun stone weighing from 1 to 2 kg. At some point, there were more miners here than geologists. And today there are unique samples. True, such finds have become relatively fewer..." WHERE IS AMBER IN RB ? It turns out that there were enough signs that there are amber deposits in the area. But it took scientists 20 years to start exploring the territory. The research and development geological enterprise rather late began to survey the layers of the local land. Thus, a wide strip north of Brest was identified, where amber should be sought. Scientists predicted that the local reserves of the gem would be approximately 6 thousand tons. This is much more than, for example, the rich Palmnikenskoe amber deposit, where this stone has been mined for a long time. And this very fact amazed those who discovered the sun stone in these places.

Let's look across the border with Ukraine on the Republic of Belarus, the border with Dubrovitsky district ... Everyone who is interested in amber has heard about Ukrainian amber in the so-called. the "amber triangle" Sarny-Dubrovitsa-Klesovo ... but few people have heard about the amber of Belarus ... The area between the villages of Sarny, Klesovo and Dubrovitsy is usually called the "Amber Triangle". Amber withl oh, it is located shallow here, which greatly simplifies mining, and makes it cheaper .. Where amber is mined in Ukraine. Klesovo-Dubrovitskoye field Amber in Ukraine is represented by gems mined in the so-called "amber triangle" covering the region of Sarn, Klesov and Dubrovitsy. This deposit is located on the territory of North-Western Ukraine, within the Rivne, Volyn, Zhitomir and Kiev regions. Its total area is more than 200 km2, of which the main part is in the Klesovsky quarry. The depth of this mine is up to 50 m, while the area is up to 2500 thousand m2. The Ukrainian gem is shallow, so it is much easier and cheaper to mine it. Most of the crystals are located at a depth of 3 to 10 m, while their content per cubic meter of parent rock is up to 250 g, and there are areas where this indicator exceeds 1000 g / m3. The parameters of the main part of the fragments are from 1 to 10 cm, but sometimes stones with a diameter of more than 15 cm are found. They can weigh more than a kilogram! All these combined characteristics make the Klesovo-Dubrovitskoye field one of the richest and most promising. According to experts, the precious stone reserves in it amount to more than 1,500 tons, while 95% of the extracted amber is of high gem quality, monochrome color, transparency and a unique color scheme. A source: http://yantar.in.ua/blog/otkuda-beretsya-yantar.html Large deposits of amber were discovered by scientists in Belarus. In terms of quality, it is not inferior to the famous Baltic. For the workers of the Gatch-Osovsky peat briquetting plant, amber is no longer a wonder. Every summer, when a new peat mining season opens, excavator buckets together with the peat mass and sand rise to the surface.amber. Today, the peat deposits in Gatcha-Osovo are running out, which means that the plant will have to be closed. People will be left without work, the village will wither away. Almost all of its inhabitants are workers of this plant. At the same time, the plant literally stands on amber deposits, which, according to experts, can be more than 350 tons. Only amber can save the enterprise. The factory knows about it. And they are even ready to open a new workshop - for its processing. Nikolay Bortnik, director of the Gatch-Osovsky peat briquetting plant, stressed that only this option would ensure the profitability of production. Locals here they have always collected a lot of amber, made various souvenirs from it. They say that he literally lies under his feet. The specific bright color of amber is very clearly visible on the peat bog after rain. 30 tons of amber found near Zhabinka December 7, 2015 | The distant ancestors of the Belarusians lived by gathering. But even in our age of smartphones and tablets, many people walk through the fields and swamps in search of what the resource-poor Belarusian land has accumulated. And they collect stones. Amber. The facts of illegal mining of the mineral were recorded in four districts of the Brest region. "This year, the facts of illegal mining of amber by residents of the surrounding villages were recorded in four districts of the Brest region - Kobrin, Zhabinkovsky, Berezovsky, Drogichinsky. They are mined by the hydraulic flooding method, mainly in peat bogs, including on the territory of the Sporovsky reserve," she said. "Evening Brest" regional committee chairman natural resources and environmental protection Tamara Yalkovskaya. OFFICIALS STRONGLY DO NOT GIVE UP POSITIONS AND DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE AMBER OF BELARUS! .. source http://www.vb.by/society/10163.html "... Belarusian geologists have indeed found amber in the sand and gravel deposits at the bottom of the drained bogs of the Brest region, which in its properties and beauty is practically no different from the world famous Baltic amber. But its production has not yet been carried out, the found deposits are only being explored. So, there are no beads made of Belarusian amber yet. The idle "professors" from the markets should know that Belarusian amber was plowed up by glaciers from the same Cretaceous-Paleogene rocks and moved by subsequent glacial processes, that is, the age of our amber is the same 70-40 million years. Many products at the bazaar and tent traders are handcrafted from the lowest-grade varieties of amber. At the Kaliningrad Combine, amber of this quality is used mainly for melting with the subsequent production of amber varnish and dry acid...." REALLY THE AMBER OF BELARUS WAS, IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE. Meanwhile NOT EVERYTHING SO RUNNY IN AMBER BELARUS ... The legislation prohibits citizens from unauthorized search and extraction of minerals, which are considered the exclusive property of the state. The Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus provides for: Article 15.14. Unauthorized production of survey works Unauthorized performance of survey work entails a warning or the imposition of a fine in the amount of up to twenty basic units, and for an individual entrepreneur - from ten to fifty basic units. Article 10.1. Violation of the right of state ownership of subsoil Unauthorized use of subsoil or the execution of transactions that violate the right of state ownership of subsoil, entail the imposition of a fine in the amount of five to thirty basic units, on an individual entrepreneur - up to one hundred and fifty basic units, and on a legal entity - up to five hundred basic units. ALL AMBER MINES OF RB STARATELSKY HELLO AND MORE YOU TO GET MORE, WASH IN BOLOTY RB SUNSTONE! .. TO EVERYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN SEARCHING BOLOTNY AMBER IN RB, WRITE ME ON E-MAIL ... This tale is used NS a source and :

Recently, there have been reports in the media about illegal mass mining of amber in Ukraine. Since the Belarusian and Ukrainian Polesie are located in a geologically similar zone, perhaps our country also has deposits of this sun stone?

Uranium NZ of Belarus

Alexander Pavlovsky, Head of the Department of Geography of Gomel state university confirmed that there is indeed amber in Belarus. Polesie is rich in its reserves - in the Brest region and in the Lelchitsky district of the Gomel region.

But in the Gomel region, its industrial development is not carried out - stone potassium salts, oil, construction crushed stone and granite, clay, glass sands, reserves of brown coal are explored.

"The bowels of the earth in our region also contain more expensive minerals. There is uranium in the Lelchitsy region. Uranium raw materials are deposited here in deep sandy and carbonaceous layers," Alexander Pavlovsky told Sputnik.

In addition, according to the expert, kimberlite pipes with signs of diamonds interspersed were found on the territory of Belarus.

Does this mean that "diamond" and "uranium" fever will start in Belarus in the near future? Apparently not. Both uranium and rough diamonds lie too deep in our country.

"The deposits are explored and known, but the question is in the technologies. The extraction of these minerals at such a depth will hardly be economically justified today. Figuratively speaking, in this case, half of the Gomel region will have to be opened," Alexander Pavlovsky explained.

So natural deposits are "hidden" until better times - when technologies will make the extraction of such deep-seated raw materials profitable.

© Sputnik / Marius Baranauskas

Sunstone from the depths of Polesie

As for the Belarusian amber, the leading specialist in this field can be considered the associate professor of the Brest State University named after A.S. Pushkin, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, professor Maxim Bogdasarov. Maksim Albertovich admits that lately an unhealthy interest has begun to appear in Belarusian amber.

Indeed, both Belarusian and Ukrainian Polesie are located in the junction zone of the Ukrainian shield, the Volyn-Podolsk plate and the Pripyat trough. Millions of years ago, the Kharkov Sea flooded the land covered with coniferous vegetation in this place. Pine resin-gum got into marine sediments, in the geochemical reducing environment of which it turned into amber. Scientists distinguish places of amber formation in the area of ​​beaches and coastal strip of the ancient sea, in areas of shallow and deep-water shelf.

Forecasting of ore-bearing amber fields in Belarus is carried out not only by drilling wells, but by an integrated scientific method that analyzes different ways a whole range of factors and signs.

Jurassic beach

Where are the placers of this valuable golden mineral located? "Beach" amber has been found today, for example, in the area of ​​the village of Glushkovichi, Lelchitsky district. But it is not recommended for "black diggers" to take up a shovel - in addition to possible problems with the law, there will be a number of other difficulties. At the very least, you will have to go 60-70 meters into the ground.

The Glushkovich area, like the entire "beach-coastal zone", was recognized as unpromising for the identification of amber-bearing placers. Professor Bagdasarov and his colleagues give the same forecast for the deep-water shelf zone.

© Sputnik / Igor Zarembo

The most promising for development is the shallow-water shelf zone, which extends over the territory of the Polesskaya saddle, the so-called lagoon-delta sediments. At the certain time earth surface here it bent a little, and sea ​​water penetrated into the deltas of the ancient rivers that once flowed through Polesie. Fossil resin deposited in these sea-flooded palaeorek estuaries and lagoons lies fairly close to the surface today.

Seven amber-bearing areas have been identified in Belarus, including Zosintsovskaya (Lelchitskaya) and Stolinsko-Mikashevichskaya. Amber here can lie at a depth of 10 to 30 meters. But not only the depth of occurrence can be interesting in determining the prospects of these sites - but also the so-called "cut-off grade" of amber.

At the Klesovskoye field, adjacent to Glushkovichi, in Ukraine, it is, for example, 50 grams per cubic meter.

The main difference between Belarusian amber and deposits in Ukraine is not geological, but legal - its reserves are not yet threatened by predatory mining, which has already caused irreparable environmental damage to our neighbors.

Border guards and customs officers now and then detain drivers who are trying to smuggle amber out of Belarus. This year alone, there are three high-profile cases. In February, a resident of the Minsk region carried 12 kilograms of sun stone to Lithuania through the Kamenny Log border crossing. The cargo was in the spare wheel of a Volkswagen. In April, customs officers found 18 unprocessed stones at the Varshavsky Most checkpoint. And in June, the State Border Committee announced the arrest of a resident of Brest, who tried to leave for Poland, hiding minerals in the seat of a car.

In the Pinsk region, "black prospectors" suffered a fiasco

If earlier border guards detained only carriers, then this summer they ran into “black diggers” who were trying to wash up jewelry right at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Illegals spotted by a drone. Three prospectors, who had deployed a motor pump for washing the soil, were tied up by an alarming group. The assistant to the head of the Pinsk border detachment, Mikhail But-Gusaim, says that they did not manage to get anything, but the fine for the damage caused to nature and violation of border legislation had to be paid a decent one - more than 150 million non-denominated rubles.

What is remarkable, the "diggers" worked according to the "Ukrainian" technology. As you know, our neighbors were seized by the amber fever right at the Belarusian border. Local residents massively mine solar stones, then throwing them into the black market. This is where a logical question arises: are there any similar deposits in Polissya? Scientists answer: there are many. And not only on the border with Ukraine. Another thing is that on state level for the extraction of amber on a large scale so far no one undertakes. So “black prospectors” come there, creating a problem for border guards, police and environmentalists. "Diggers" have long been on their hook, which is periodically confirmed by criminal cases for illegal mining.

The amber deposits in our bowels look like a ghost. Many talk about them, but only a few manage to see them. There is amber on the maps of geologists, in the photographs posted in manuals and scientific collections, but you cannot touch it. Untreated pieces of stone are found by archaeologists at Paleolithic sites, which are more than 13 thousand years old. Products made of fossilized resin - for example, beads, earrings, figurines of animals - are found by scientists in Mesolithic burials. Scientific research student group, created at the State Pedagogical Institute. A.S. Pushkin in Brest, back in the 80s of the last century, she discovered more than three dozen amber deposits.

Then a full-scale exploration began. Today, seven areas with amber deposits are known for sure, which are also in Polesie. In particular, in Drogichinsky, Berezovsky, Pinsky, Stolin and Luninetsky districts. The most promising and explored in detail are the deposits on the peat bog massif Gatch near Zhabinka. There, right under the peat bogs at a depth of two to five meters, more than 300 tons of amber are stored. By world standards, this is not much, considering that, for example, at the deposits in the Kaliningrad region, so much and even more amber is mined during the year.

Samples of amber from the deposits of the Brest region are kept in the Brest Regional Museum of Local Lore

However, it is necessary to rejoice in this too. Moreover, our amber is easily polished and polished, and small fragments can be easily pressed. That is why it is not inferior to analogues of the Baltic, and jewelry made of Belarusian minerals meet all international standards. Prototypes of amber are in the funds of the Brest Regional Museum of Local Lore. And if we start working on the development of existing deposits, new ones may be found in the future. There are prerequisites for this. The question is: where to start?

The fact is that no one touched the Belarusian amber in Soviet times. Then the Baltic mines were developed. The exception was the work of the all-Union trust "Zapadkvartszamotsvety". This enterprise supervised the bowels of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Already in the perestroika times, its specialists carried out geological exploration in the area of ​​the Leninsky village in the Kobrin district, began drilling, after which they said that the field was unpromising. At the same time, the mined amber was never shown to anyone, although the local workers saw large pieces of sun stone ...

Later, in the years of independence, specialists of the research geological enterprise "BelGEO" conducted a second study there, which showed that there is still amber: 325 tons lie on an area of ​​about 300 hectares. However, in the post-Soviet years, a new area of ​​the extractive and processing industry would require investments, and it was problematic to draw up a business plan in which profits significantly exceed costs. Therefore, no one took seriously the development.

The difficulty is also in the fact that part of the Belarusian amber is redeposited by the glacier and water-glacial flows, and therefore it is distributed very unevenly. It is difficult to get it by traditional methods, by the way of drilling. It is necessary to make a continuous excavation, which means that on 300 hectares under Zhabinka, a large reservoir can form - like the Minsk Sea. However, there are pluses here too: sand, which will go into construction, the creation of fish farms, a tourist recreation area, and, of course, amber itself - a fossil price of considerable. A common fist-sized stone used for jewelry costs about $ 20 - $ 25. And even a small mineral interspersed with the oldest mosquito, midge or air of the era in which it was formed will cost $ 150-200 or more.

At the same time, some of the gems, for example, on the border with Ukraine, are not at all touched by the glacier, therefore they lie closer to the surface of the earth and are much easier to extract. The neighbors understood this - though not on a national scale. Therefore, amber mining has become a profitable business there, for which Ukrainians are ready to fight in the literal sense of the word. Just like it was recently in the Volyn region on the border with the Drogichin region, where local prospectors prevented our border guards from demarcating. And the dispute was caused by the Zhirovsky Canal, from where, according to operational data, the miners took water to wash the amber. According to an international treaty, it belongs to Belarus, and after demarcation, Ukrainians will be prohibited from entering here.

It remains to be hoped that the plunderers of the subsoil, causing great harm to nature, will continue to be found in single copies. But it is obvious that the problem cannot be solved by force alone. It seems that sooner or later the state will have to take up the production itself or legally give this industry into the hands of entrepreneurs.

LETTER OF THE LAW

For illegal mining of amber, the Code of Administrative Offenses of Belarus provides:

Article 15.14. Unauthorized production of survey works

Unauthorized performance of survey work entails a warning or the imposition of a fine in the amount of up to twenty basic units, and for an individual entrepreneur - from ten to fifty basic units.

Article 10.1. Violation of the right of state ownership of subsoil

Unauthorized use of subsoil or the execution of transactions that violate the right of state ownership of subsoil shall entail the imposition of a fine in the amount of five to thirty basic units, on an individual entrepreneur - up to one hundred and fifty basic units, and on a legal entity - up to five hundred basic units.

Alexander MITYUKOV.

[email protected]

Albert BOGDASAROV,
Professor,
full member of the Belarusian Geographical Society.

Battle for the amber harvest

This summer, our neighbors in the Rivne region are carrying out a large-scale special operation to combat the amber mafia. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko has already stated that the annual profit from amber mining is equal to the army budget:

Ukrainian law enforcers take amber from illegal immigrants

- According to preliminary estimates, amber businessmen earn as much per year as the country's military budget requires. Amber deposits are found practically throughout the Ukrainian Polesie. This is a serious prospect for the state. It is necessary to legalize what the local population is doing, but to send the money not to the pockets of the bandits and police officers who cooperate with them, but to the state treasury.

However, the "amber kings" are in no hurry to surrender. With the beginning of the special operation, the amber diggers shot down two drones of the National Guard, and they met the special forces with weapons and on an armored vehicle. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov said that aerial photography recorded many armed people, armored vehicles and a terrifying picture of the devastation of nature in the Rivne reserve. According to various estimates, from 120 to 300 tons of amber per year are illegally mined in the north-west of Ukraine. The volume of the "shadow" market is 200-300 million dollars. In the case of the "amber mafia" of the Rivne region, there are employees of the prosecutor's office, the SBU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“There used to be grass here,” Vasily Zaruba, head of the Verkholessky section of the Radonezhskoye OJSC, shows to a sandy beach in the middle of the forest. Several acres of once fertile land have turned into a "lunar landscape". All around there are sands and crater pits about a meter deep. The desert was left behind by a private enterprise.

According to the documents, the workers carried out prospecting for amber, in fact they mined it. They are not the first and, most likely, not the last. Despite the decline in demand in the main amber market in China, black prices per kilogram of stone are still high. Although, according to the buyers, the amber fever in Belarus ends before it even starts. “Belarusians, as always, are not on time. The fever is over, but we only have a rumor that it is possible to earn extra money, ”jokes the amber merchant Dmitry.

The area where amber was "explored" is located near the village of Olkhovka, Kobrin region. According to locals, back in Soviet time scientists have found deposits here, but too small for industrial development, so mining enterprises did not appear here. Black diggers took the initiative into their own hands.

From Olkhovka to the place of illegal mining about 10 minutes drive through the fields. The bumpy road is blurred by rain. Getting here is difficult. The place is as far as possible from settlement- to avoid prying eyes.

According to the documents, a private enterprise was supposed to conduct exploration here. For these purposes, by the decision of the Kobrin regional executive committee, they were provided with a geological allotment.

- They had a project for carrying out these works, which passed all the examinations, - explained the head of the Kobrin regional inspection of natural resources and environmental protection Andrey Lysenko... “But they decided to“ study ”in their own ways, whether there is amber there or not. As a result, the land is degraded.<…>They just messed up the ground.

"Exploration" was carried out by a private enterprise not far from the reclamation canal. The presence of a reservoir near the place of work is a prerequisite for the extraction of amber by hydraulic erosion.

- The bottom line is this: a powerful and, as a rule, a homemade pump is connected to a car engine. Fire hoses are connected to the pump. Water is taken from the nearest reservoir: canal, lake, swamp. This water is pumped underground, - explained the process by the Deputy Chairman of the Brest Regional Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection. Sergey Shilinchuk.

On August 16, employees of the Natural Resources Committee arrived at the site. They found handicraft equipment, with the help of which they illegally mined amber, and called an investigative and operational group to the scene.

According to Andrey Lysenko, a check is being carried out on this fact. The damage caused to nature was estimated at 4,700 rubles. The company left behind not only sand craters, but also several stones, which the locals dismantled as souvenirs.

It is interesting that illegal immigrants worked before the private enterprise near Olkhovka. They mined amber using the same hydraulic erosion method. The group included Belarusians and Ukrainians. They left behind 2,267.61 m² of degraded land. The damage caused to nature turned out to be insufficient to initiate a criminal case - they drew up protocols for damage to land and ordered them to compensate 4571 rubles of damage.

Up to 50 thousand dollars per kilogram piece

As Sergei Shilinchuk notes, the main consumer of amber is China.

- Explosive demand is in China. There is a big fashion for amber. And the price of a stone has grown significantly over several years.

The Belarusian stone is resold to Russia, and from there it is already transported to China. At the same time, resellers risk no less than earners. In May, police in Pinsk detained a man who was carrying 6.5 kg of amber in his Mercedes for total amount 21.6 thousand rubles. The goods were confiscated, and the entrepreneur was given 20 basic fines (420 rubles).

A small piece of amber left after the work of black diggers near Olkhovka

Considering the specifics of their work, Belarusian amber traders do not advertise their activities. On condition of anonymity, one of them agreed to talk to a TUT.BY correspondent.

- We have two types of amber. The same as in Ukraine - along the border of the Ukrainian shield in the southeast of the Brest region, and like the Baltic - in the western part, including in the Kobrin region. Ukrainian is an order of magnitude better, but does not have the same bright shades, - explained the interlocutor, who introduced himself Dmitry.

According to Dmitry, recently in China due to the crisis there has been a decrease in demand for amber.

- The fever is ending already. Earnings for pump pumps are not enough for workers' wages and diesel fuel.<…>Demand and price have been falling lately. Therefore, our fellow citizens, as usual, do not have time to jump into the last carriage - and as a result we will see crippled forests and people who have not made money on it.

A piece of Belarusian amber found near Olkhovka. Photo of the reader

A reseller of amber from the Kaliningrad region of Russia, who introduced himself Vasily, told the TUT.BY journalist that in terms of its qualities Belarusian amber practically does not differ from Kaliningrad amber. As the interlocutor explained, the price of a stone depends on the faction.

For a kilogram of raw amber in pieces from 2 to 5 grams on the black market, on average, they give about $ 250. For a kilogram of pieces from 5 to 10 grams - 450 dollars, from 10 to 20 grams - 1100 dollars, from 20 to 100 grams - 3500 dollars, from 100 to 200 grams - 5 thousand dollars, from 200 grams to a kilogram - up to 10 thousand dollars ...

“The price of stones weighing more than a kilogram depends on the shape, frequency, color and ranges from 5 to 50 thousand dollars per piece,” says Vasily.

"Lelchitsky district - the most promising place"

The fashion for amber came to Belarus from the Ukraine, where whole villages illegally mine the stone. According to Ukrinform, from 120 to 300 tons of amber are illegally mined there annually, and the volume of the shadow market is $ 200-300 million.

In Belarus, the territories of a number of districts of the Brest and Gomel regions, adjacent to the Ukrainian border, are potentially amber-bearing. So far, stone is not being mined at the state level, since the richest primary deposits of amber lie at depths of about 40-60 meters and with existing technologies, their development is unprofitable, they note in Regional Committee of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.

Locations of amber occurrence in Belarus were also identified at shallower depths of occurrence, but they contain many times lower concentrations of stone in comparison with the same Ukraine and the Baltic states.

- Lelchitsky district of Gomel region is the most promising place in Belarus, where industrial amber reserves may be discovered. As far as I know, geological exploration is underway. There, the bedrock deposit is closest to the surface, - said Sergey Shilinchuk.

Crime and Punishment

In 2015-2016, the facts of illegal amber mining were recorded in Kobrin, Berezovsky, Drogichinsky, Stolin and Pinsk districts of the Brest region. At the same time, groups were operating, which included Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians.

Last October in water protection zone black diggers were detained near Lake Chernoe in the Berezovsky district. They had 103 stones with them. The group consisted of three people. Later it turned out that two of them had previously illegally mined amber on the territory of the republican biological reserve "Sporovsky" in the Drogichinsky district of the Brest region. The result of their work was land degradation on the territory of 4945 m² in the Drogichinsky district and 2375 m² in the Berezovsky district. The total amount of harm caused environment, amounted to 49,108 rubles.

The diggers who operated on the territory of the Sporovsky reserve were found guilty of deliberately damaging specially protected natural areas and violation of the regime of protection and use of specially protected natural areas. Both were sentenced to 4 and a half years of imprisonment without a referral to correctional facility.

1000 hectares of desert

In Olkhovka itself, locals have different attitudes towards illegal amber mining. Some condemn, others do not. They say that the state does not extract, so people would not be disturbed. However, the existing methods of extraction cause great harm to nature. As Sergei Shilinchuk notes, in most cases, restore the state of the disturbed land plots not technically feasible.

- We do not want to allow what is happening in Ukraine.<…>Look, there are thousands of hectares of land turned into a desert, ”the source stressed.

Amber, this sunny ornamental stone, was popular in the past centuries, and today it is experiencing a surge in popularity.

Where is it mined?

Earlier it was believed that there are no large amber deposits in Belarus, at least that's what the geological "canons" said. Amber should not be formed on lands that are now within the borders of a given country. However, recently, in the eighties of the XX century, amber "nuggets" began to be found in the vicinity of Brest, in a former peat processing factory. Until now, there is both legal and "poaching" amber mining. Sometimes prospectors come across pieces of resin up to several kilograms in size! Deposits of sun stone have also been discovered in other marshy areas.

Illegal mining of amber in Belarus

Where could amber come from there, because it is formed in completely different conditions? The answer is simple - several tons of stone in due time to the territory modern Belarus brought the glacier. This happened in the Quaternary period.

The country's industry is gradually mastering more and more new sources of this ornamental stone. It is possible to find deposits of "more precisely, deposits" of amber of various shades - honey, lemon, even slightly reddish.