MINERAL EXPLORERS | S1 | Ep1 | BOLIVIA

amethyst it's been worn for protection and courage and even to prevent drunkenness but mankind has been intoxicated by its purple hue for thousands of years from the ancient Egyptians to modern-day collectors and we're headed straight to the source of some of the world's best my name is Thomas Megan and I am a mineral Explorer for the last 35 years I've traveled the world in search of the finest gems crystals and minerals now I'm taking you along with me all right zoom it in here well visit some of the richest mines and discover just what it takes to unearth these natural treasures gonna be one heck of an explosion it's okay come on [Music] amethyst is one of my best-selling minerals and in my opinion the best amethyst comes from Bolivia I travel here several times a year to stock up the source of these stones is a mine located deep in the jungles of Eastern Bolivia the company that operates in is headquartered in the modern metropolis of Santa Cruz I'm here to meet up with Ramiro will be our guide to the anahi mine renowned for its production of amethyst and the unique mineral ametrine Ramiro and his father operate the country's largest gem mining and processing company and have exclusive rights to the mine it's a large-scale operation that processes huge amounts of amethyst and transported from the mine there are bags and bags literally tons of amethyst here ready to be graded in the process this is rough fresh rough coming from the mine is how it looks that gets from the mind Jim ray is a raw gem mineral which can be cut and polished into gemstones okay right so this needs to be graded we do a grading process selecting which rough is going to continue the process and which rough is going to be sell as easy as it is you can you get gemstones out of this quality also oh yes oh really actually the gemstones are inside that's why I'm going to show you in the process how we process it to get into the gems oh okay yeah well yeah you can see in some of these here that they that it's clear down in the center so okay let's see how you process these things okay [Music] over the years they've developed some new methods which have helped change the gemstone market around most of South America and in Africa they hammer the rough chipping away at the bad parts with a small hammer and that's how they started here - but about eight years ago they began using diamond blades to sawed it off it's much more precise and it's resulted in better yields and bigger stones I got to do some cutting myself but when I looked around at all the taped up fingers I was a little bit worried [Laughter] people are very afraid when they move this process because they think they can cut out their fingers I should leave the blade it's a diamond blade it will only cut quark but not none of your finger [Laughter] there are four steps to the sawing process each one is bringing them a little closer to the final product in the end they're left with little blocks of gem rough ready to be sold or faceted into gemstones these are already clean stone so these are ready to be graded and ready to facility so this is what they look like after they've been all trimmed up and all of the bad stuffs been taken away these are ready to be made into faceted or cut stone now some of the rough they take and they faceted themselves to use a new jewelry but what I do i buy the natural crystals the natural crystals of amethyst and the unique ametrine crystals ametrine is different in that it's amethyst and citrine all in the same stone both are different types of quartz that contain tiny little amounts of iron that's what gives them their color Ramiro knew I was coming so he had all of the ametrine crystals unpacked and laid out for me to go through they had a beautiful lot and I got to pick out the very best when selecting the crystals I look for three main things depth of color a good separation of color and most importantly condition some crystals like this one here have dings on the end or they've been bang when they're taken out of the mine and this is something that collectors don't like at all a piece like this which is one of the ones I really like would sell for more than $1,000 maybe $1,500 we're a piece like this which has a big ding on the end is not desirable to collectors and they wouldn't pay more than a couple of hundred dollars for it tops so you have $1,500 $200 a big difference in price Santa Cruz is where I buy all of the nice ametrine crystals but to get the large clusters of amethyst I have to travel to Romero's other smaller facility in puerto suarez [Music] along the banks of the Laguna Kostis in one of the largest wetlands in the world lies puerto suarez it was founded in 1875 by a Bolivian explorer who envisioned a utopia instead this border town is known more for its contraband trade with Brazil than its scenic views of the Pantanal throughout the late 1800s where dos Juarez flourished as a major trade center but a drop in rubber prices in the early 1900's led to the city's decline today there is renewed interest in the area thanks to ecotourism but jobs are still limited and the people sustain themselves as they have for generations fishing the local waters a few fishermen have even opened up small outdoor restaurants where they serve a local favorite piranha [Music] this place may not look like much but Ramirez said it's the best this is sewer sewer be kind of like a catfish Oh [Music] I wouldn't want those biting me I'd had Branagh before but the only people brave enough to try it on this trip were the two women's Leslie's ordered the Parana suit Karina ordered a piranha and she got it wasn't pretty but it was pretty good so if you ever get a chance to eat Veronica I'll give it a try tastes a lot better than it looks look up puerto suarez and a travel guide and you'll be lucky to find anything at all but minerals worth thousands of dollars pass right through here all the time it's the closest town to be an ahi mine and it's where all the material comes to be graded and sorted like the town itself the warehouse is not much to look at it's nothing like their facility in Santa Cruz here it's just a small house but there's a big yard full of amethyst clusters and points a cluster is a mineral specimen that consists of multiple crystals everything that's produced in the mine comes first here to puerto suarez and from puerto suarez we ship it to Santa Cruz to be processed but where you are seen here in in puerto suarez is the part of the clusters and collection pieces that we offer to the market this right here is probably my favorite piece of the whole lot the reason I like this one so much is because it's kind of like a flower a natural flower of amethyst crystals are shooting out in all directions they're large and a really beautiful color once it gets cleaned up it's going to be an incredible piece yeah we don't bring a whole lot of people here actually our class reproduction is very pretty limited so I have a few customers in Brazil and then I have Thomas in the US so I think Thomas is the only one of my clients that it's really picky and he spends money flying here just to pick the stones and make sure they are the way he wanted [Music] what do you think what do you think the points and clusters are all categorized by size and color and they're organized in grades A through F oh this is a beautiful piece you made a mistake by putting it in D they had a great plot of amethyst there they had really nice clusters and had a great assortment of single points this will along the edges here where it's like multi terminated around the front edges it's called a castling effect and a lot of people really like that yeah actually it is it's quite desirable with a lot of collectors you see that but then the multi terminations around here that's probably that's probably occurred when there was changes in heat it got hot and then cold and then hot and cold gets called it interrupted growth it's one of the unique properties of the anahi mine in the end I think I got a good deal and some great amethyst of course you never really know until you get everything home and all cleaned up [Music] with all my buying out of the way the business end of my trip is over but the adventure is just beginning the Onaga mine is located deep in the jungle near the border with Brazil as the crow flies it's just over 90 miles from puerto suarez but romero suggested we take the scenic route a six-hour 150 mile boat ride through the Pantanal he chartered us a couple of boats from the Bolivian Navy that's right despite being a landlocked country Bolivia has a small naval force to curb smuggling on its borders since there's not much action they frequently hire out their fleet for private and commercial use okay tell us so we're all set but the boats are ready you know I got the Navy to give us some good boats for the trip we take a look at them yes sure okay great [Music] right this looks good man I think that'll that'll be a lot of fun actually that is not our boat it's this one that the boat we're gonna take it's this one this one right the aluminium one you're kidding no that's right actually this is the fastest boat we can get to divide no they have bigger boats but we'll take like four more hours oh you're ours yes this is a long trip through the Pantanal that is filled full of alligators and anaconda and piranha and they gave us a couple of dumpy little boats to go in they said though that they would repair the holes before we left right in the heart of South America right in the middle of nowhere this is the Pantanal covering approximately 65,000 square miles it's the largest wetlands on the planet surrounded by dense jungles sheltering the world's largest concentration of wildlife you can't help but feel like a modern-day Explorer traveling into the unknown [Music] and the further we go the more isolated it feels with only the occasional farm and a few rickety shacks lining the shores needless to say if you get in trouble out here there's no one around the hill we're only about an hour and a half into the trip here where it's over the engine my Saba find yourself with manual how can I know it's not very encouraging this is not the kind of place you want to get stuck the Pantanal has flesh-eating wolves and jaguars on land in flesh-eating crocodiles anaconda came in and piranhas in the water but the worst are the flesh-eating mosquitoes at a time lots of mosquitoes not everything here is out to get you though the wildlife is incredibly diverse and while it's often overshadowed by the Amazon the Pantanal is one of the best places in the world for viewing wildlife in one of the most naturally beautiful places I've ever seen [Music] because of our continuing engine trouble our a six hour boat ride lasted 16 hours with us arriving well after dark we're all really happy to be back on dry land but our journey to the mine is not over yet this long overgrown road cuts a narrow path through the jungle from the water's edge to the mine it's a bumpy ride especially for our - cameraman bouncing around in the back of the pickup as low as we're driving through the jungle Alex caught a bird it looks like a small it's a what they call a small owl Alex didn't have any dinner tonight yeah let him go we we have an incredible cameraman he's multi-talented [Music] this is a lot further down than those we fit in before deep in the jungles of eastern Bolivia are below the surface of the earth is a world of natural wonder where the most basic elements combine to form some of the most unique crystals known to man for the last 20 years Ramiro's company has been working to bring this world to the surface through a complex series of underground tunnels above ground the anahi mine is unlike any other mine I've ever visited I mean it isn't exactly what you'd call roughing it it's isolated but not completely cut off and reminds me of a summer camp I went to as a kid the miners stay out here for shifts of 30 to 60 days at a time and live in small cabins on-site the company's done everything they can to make life at the mine feel a little more like home with a nice soccer field and even my car it's the cleanest most organized mine I've ever seen they employ about a hundred people including a small cooking staff who prepared some of the best food I've had since arriving in Bolivia some of the meats raised right here but the rest of the phone is trucked in along with everything else needed to sustain day-to-day operations while it may be nice it's no vacation for the miners work here is tough working long hours excavating huge amounts of gem row but as far as the miners go these guys have it pretty good the anahi mine has a lot going for it it produces some of the world's best amethyst and is pretty much the only source for a maturing but it's got another claim to fame a natural wonder hidden nearly 100 feet underground but before we go into the mine we're told a little bit about the customs of the mining community throughout Bolivia the miners all chew coca leaves it staves off their hunger and thirst and it gives them a boost of energy but it also plays an important part in a ritual that they believe keeps them safe while they're working underground they think you know everything that it's in the surface it's governed by God and everything that it's under the surface it's governed by a devil so they actually call devil Pio and they give them coca leaves they give their him alcohol you know they give him the cigarettes to let them work at the mine and be safe this is how coal maybe the God will not get angry with me by doing this yes it's a good way the miners won't take this alcohol and drink it or no no or they won't take this flavin yeah forgive him what would happen what would happen if they did it's forgiven to take this because what they believe is that God will get angry and probably will take its life in in retrieve so we won't drink any of the alcohol for you it's not necessary for you to to pull all us too much chocolate just a few and won't be part of the ritual just take a little and then leave it right there yes okay tío protect me it's more like tio don't kill me yeah it's no wonder they believe this is the devil's lair you can feel the temperature drop as you climb down the air smells musty it's dark and the only living things down here are bugs and bats there are about six kilometers of tunnels here some of them nearly 300 feet deep it's an eerie feeling being this far beneath the earth's surface [Music] to extend the tunnels they use a combination of drilling and blasting making small holes in the tunnel walls for the charges but all of the excavating is done by hand all of these tunnels follow quartz veins but one thing led them to what is now the pride of the anahi mine [Music] [Music] this is believed to be the world's largest gym pocketed it was discovered in 1993 but because it's such a natural wonder they've left it intact all these years their hope is to take it out in its entirety but that would be a really huge feat of Engineering the cavity is about 20 feet deep and they estimated away almost 50 tons when it's taken out that's a lot of amethyst really beautiful and this is just something just being able to be in a cavity like this not only is its size impressive but also the quality of the crystals amethyst points are not usually this big with this good of color and they're exceptionally clean you see usually amethyst Saar found caked in mud and covered in iron stains but over the years this cavity has been washed clean revealing the natural beauty of this amazing discovery [Music] it's just amazing up here [Music] but to take this out as a whole would be really hard so you didn't see me and really heavy that way it would be a wonder in some some Museum in South America they have an expression Pachamama which is basically mother earth being in this cavity feels like being in the womb of Pachamama there's a tranquility about it that makes you relaxed and comfortable and excited all at the same time it's a wonder it's just a true wonder can you bring them at lunch I'd like to stay here for a while if you want to see more episodes or check out our mineral collection click the link in the description and of course like and subscribe to our Channel thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on mineral explorers [Music]

Channel: Mineral Explorers

Views: 38,091

Keywords: AMETHYST, AMETRINE, MINERALS, GEM HUNTING, MINERAL HUNTING, MINERAL COLLECTION, ROCK COLLECTION, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, MINES, CAVES, EXPLORING, JEWELRY, GEM DEALING, JUNGLE, MINERAL EXPLORERS, SOUTH AMERICA, MINING, TREASURE, SPELUNKING, BOLIVIA, ANAHI MINE, PANTANAL, GEM POCKET, ROCK COLLECTING, GEMS, NATURAL TREASURE, CRYSTALS, CRYSTAL COLLECTING, ROCKS, ROCKHOUNDING

Id: -Pq0g2zi2z0

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020