MINERAL EXPLORERS | S1 | Ep3 | BRAZIL- MINAS GERAIS

the beauty of gems and jewels has entranced many an explorer and inspired countless treasure hunts including our next voyage to a country with the biggest variety of them all Brazil my name is Thomas Nagin 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 we'll 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] Belo Horizonte is the capital city of Minas Gerais the most mineral rich state in Brazil and one of the most mineral rich regions in the world but this adventure takes us to governor Dorval odorous along a historic route traveled by some infamous explorers of the 17th and 18th century hey John how's it going I've known John for over 15 years he's a good friend and my go-to connection for Brazilian gems and minerals he's well-respected in the mineral community and having lived in Brazil for over 25 years he's also a great source of local history defender deities were the men of the vendetta the men of the flag they were the original explorers that came through this area basically this same route here very close looking for emerald for the King of Portugal that was their their goal to discover emerald they didn't they passed it right by so they were going for the emeralds they camped on top of it and didn't even see it that's the history of mining isn't everything another guy comes along and just slips over it and gets it very easily a modern city on the banks of the Rio Doce governor d'Or Valladares is famous for its bustling mineral trade but it has another claim to fame [Music] towering eleven hundred and twenty-three meters above sea level the Abita Runa peak is the world-class destination for paragliding with fantastic views of the city and a thrill like no other but I prefer the thrill of the hunt and if it's Minerals you're hunting this is the place to do it we've arrived it may be less heart-pounding than jumping off a mountain but the views are just as stunning here you'll find one of the largest selections of gem minerals in their natural form now these specimens could be cut into gemstones but instead they're appreciated for their natural beauty unlike gym minerals rutile can't be faceted or polished but it's long thin titanium crystals once said to be Cupid's darts strike a chord in the hearts of mineral collectors around the world he's got two big pieces here and they're very delicate these two pieces here he's asking $10,000 for this is all rutile standing straight up out of the matrix with quartz sticking out there I almost knocked it off the porch that wouldn't be good ten thousand dollar piece off the edge this is a really nice rutile star here rutile can grow in the form of stars which are sought after by collectors many times it radiates out of hematite which is a shining black mineral but really it's all about the composition one thing you're not supposed to do is buy at night that's one of the rules of buying stones don't buy at night but I might make an exception here because these are some exceptional root eels [Music] what do you got getting these really delicate minerals out of Brazil and safely into a collector's cabinet is no easy task what's the secret Foam boxes and toilet paper lots of toilet paper this next mineral is prized as both a gemstone and a natural specimen when the Bondurant a stumbled upon it they thought they'd found emeralds and it's easy to see why while tourmaline can be green and translucent it also occurs in a wide variety of colors making it a great addition to any mineral collection I just saw a couple of pieces that I really really like have a look it should be interesting in situations like this don't drool over the best pieces pass them up and come back to them later each one of these pieces is 25 carats really large is this very difficult to get this color of tourmaline problems with the mix line a lot of times as it tends to be too dark yeah these are not tourmaline czar not cheap another thing I've learned over the years is don't make an offer right away ask the seller how much he wants it could be less than you were anticipating then make your offer be careful not to offer too much or too little depending on the seller he could be offended or think that you're not a serious buyer but the best tool in these situations is to use your intuition and knowledge of the market and as always be respectful Oh si como no we have a deal the only thing is he wants a copy of our movie okay thank you very much good luck oh thank you thank you so much I was really nervous because this is one of the biggest purchases I've ever made the turn lanes are really expensive now I felt really relieved after getting it because it's really hard to and you see a beautiful minerals like this even when they're really expensive it's really hard to walk away tourmaline the October birthstone is said to strengthen the body and spirit and inspire creativity and Mother Nature was surely inspired when she created this work of art while some crystals are best left in their natural form many are cut into faceted gemstones the process of turning gem rough into fine jewelry is a lengthy one one that requires great skill and expertise and Brazil is home to some of the Masters of the trade to get it close to the form that you want by doing a series of passes on the circular saw the rough stone slowly takes shape revealing its clarity and gem enos hundreds of millions of dollars just on these little machines that's amazing [Laughter] now it's ready to be fastened [Music] real high quality cutting certain things I don't like other people because one of the lost arts in jewelry making is the meticulous process of Jam peg cutting or hand faceting these guys don't use these machines these with angles and degrees and on they just use a stick their intelligence is in their hands the stone is affixed to a wooden peg with hot wax then the holes on a board are used as a guide as he adds the facets jam-pack cutting can give a stone an even brighter chime than the modern computer method but it's more expensive as craftsmen are becoming harder to find this is our local jeweler here in governador valadares he made so the fine jewelry here in town a lot of people work with him because he does very nice work when people brings UI stoned they stone tells you something and then out of the the shape of the stone and the faceted on the stone so I can make the jewelry rock out of that this is how most people know gems faceted and set in silver or gold but their journey to the market begins at the mine where these ancient minerals caked in dirt patiently awaited discovery [Music] Oh [Music] delete through the vein through the bay [Music] Shalini oh just uncovered a new pocket of aquamarine but like all good treasures there are some risks so what do you have there quote yes something to take care when you're in demise we have some scorpions everywhere so scorpions everywhere yes you must be careful when you take some stones when you walk you must watch for snakes before you enter oh you have snakes too yes anything else dragons attached Gao also produces other minerals hints of these beauties are all along the path to the mind Micah everywhere ok this is a cluster of mica here now it hasn't been cleaned yet it's gonna be really beautiful when it's clean but this has just come out of the mine and it's got a little bit of Cleveland ID on it the white is the Cleveland ID so Jelena how hard is this going to the mine how far does the tunnel go in if you go straight around 200 meters 200 meters yes I'll let you go first yes just in case there's any snakes I notice you have a lot of wood in here when you start to open the to know the they fall and you have to put another one and go very slow did you have people heard out at balls but lady is my father worked with mine since 1960 he never have the next step inside the mines wow that's great that's a great record when you go walking from here you will see how the rocks are changing you see in this place things begin to be more hard there's a more solid here yes you don't need to use the wood okay but this this is still not the pegmatite okay we walk a lot inside of this and you see this changing before we get to the pegmatite the place where we produce the gemstones the precious stones look at all the crystallization yeah this is the kind of line we are following the mica this kind of mica it's sign of we have we can have some production here so this right here just really soft mica crumbly mica yes it's where you get good production out of you take the dirt and go to that place to clean to clean it and you put it through a screen the screen sips out small pieces of aquamarine which can add up quickly and are used for jewelry this is where you just found it huh yes that's what I want to show you [Music] Wow look at that this here is aquamarine big crystals of aquamarine and big quartz crystals along with the mica and the Cleveland I oh and look up in there this one I found a few days ago a few days ago and I decide to turn right to make it easier toward when I've done right I found another two more you've got two more part one oh wow that means there's a big concentration of mineralization here but not only that they here hollow sounds behind here when they blast and when they're picking that sound means there's a good chance the vein will open up into another pocket of aquamarine which could be an incredible fine look you can see the clarity of it there's places in it that are clear all the way through more aquas this does not happen every day he could feel a big crystal back there and he's not covering it now they must work delicately in the pocket any small chip decreases the value of a stone up to 90% one of the best things about being a mineral Explorer is the opportunity to see these stones as they're uncovered of course it's great to have first pick of the line but to be part of a thrilling discovery as a real treasure and another added bonus is the great friends you make along the way a member of the barrel family this Bluegreen beauty was thought to protect sailors on their voyages and now it's a must have mineral for many serious collectors welcome to tee off low Tony known as the gemstone capital of the world teófilo is the must go to place for gem rough and faceted stones this small tourist town also has the usual sweet attractions like sukhothai Konya or sugarcane juice [Music] many of the world's gemstones come from Brazil this includes tourmaline topaz amethyst citrine aquamarine and many more John knows a lot of guys around he's been doing this for many years [Music] everything they're selling here is dollars dollars buy the Cure this is two hundred and fifty dollars security this is aquamarine and it's a hundred and twenty dollars a purin very pretty one follow well at the beach today for this stone he's asking three hundred and fifty dollars a carat carat a weight measurement 5 carats equals one gram John offered him two hundred yeah what do you like about this okay it's a green stone it has a slight blue to it it's what we call a open color it's bright a lot of tourmaline has a tendency to be too dark when it's too dark you don't get that brilliance out of this stone I would actually take the stone and recut it a little bit I'll lose some weight it'll make my cost a little bit higher per carat but I'll get a lot more brilliance out of the stone my clients mostly collect specimens but it's good business to have some gemstones on hand we're gonna be mobbed pretty soon John and I were starting to attract too much attention if you really want to get down to business you need a little more privacy privacy also allows you time to really inspect the stones to make sure you're not giving any that have been color treated these all appear to be natural [Music] negotiating and teófilo otoni can be tough at times these guys have had lots of experience so in order to get the best deals you sometimes just have to walk away if they really want to sell Philby back last minute gym bang we made the offers all day long and fought over the price and everything and at the last minute when we're leaving the parking lot we are able to come to a deal it's crazy [Music] Brazil produces some world-class gemstones but you can't beat mother nature and many of brazil's most impressive minerals are the natural specimens [Music] bandeirantes may have overlooked the value of tourmaline but these semi-precious stones have become highly sought after in the mineral world and the paedon era mine is famous for its top-quality pieces [Music] it's a large operation with attempted robberies and even shootouts security is a big concern millions of dollars worth of minerals have come out of this mine and when they hit a pocket word travels fast so making sure that the mine and the miners are safe is a top priority you grow a lot of your own vegetables here nearly on being this far removed the mine is largely self-sufficient with the vegetable garden and even chickens free-range organic there's also a cooking staff on site that dishes out hot meals made from fresh ingredients helping make the mine feel just a little more like home daniel is helping to revolutionize the gem mining business using technology that's normally reserved for industrial mines this is the actual body and the way it runs this way so there's large grain size pegmatite there which means to us that's the center that's the nucleus of where everything starting you think you're gonna find a bonanza out on this that's by doing all this core drilling this enables you to make an underground map of where the minerals are to help you know where to dig because digging is really expensive isn't it it's very Never Sleeps course sampling is expensive but it's helped find new production in a mind that was once thought to be nearly depleted using a special drill with a hollow steel tube to remove specific sections of rock Daniel and his crew hope to find pegmatite in the samples which will lead you to where the term liens are most likely to occur designed so that's on a curve yeah so if you're here you're trying to shoot in or something you're not they can stay behind the curve oh right so from one door to the other door you got a there's a safe baby so they can't sit here and shoot your guards okay the mine itself is carefully thought-out in an effort to keep the workers safe and to best utilize their natural resources these tunnels are now filled with water this is sort of our water reserve so that water is very valuable to us we use that per cooling the drill bit head while we're drilling over there or when they're drilling to actually drill for mining using their machinery these geologists are creating modern-day treasure maps taking the guesswork out of where to dig saving both time and money well that's the machine so you can go about a hundred meters that's a stabilizing ring this as the cutting head over there and this has the inner pipe right there and that allows them to pull out and that has the core sample inside how much of a core sample do they get at one time so this gives you one and a half meters one and a half meters line a half meter support and Grill is really you can see they're cutting pegmatite water gives you back is white taking it out of the drill those are the core samples so right here this is this is coming into the main gallery they've really done a tremendous amount of digging here Evan oh my god this is all really hard rock - yeah how deep does the mine go well the actual length of the tunnel at the longest point is about 800 meters yeah how far does it go underground we're probably 200 meters underground this is where the beautiful tourmaline that's in the Perot muta piece that was in the Perot is came from over here you can see here you've got a little piece of quartz floating around but all of this you can see these giant feet more the base of the huge tourmaline and here you can see right here here's a pocket there's even little bits of tourmaline still in there oh yeah there is tourmaline tourmaline here here's your Emily here's Cleveland I tore albeit finely crystallized right big lepidolite in here most people don't realize the type of energy it takes to bring them the pieces that we pull out of the earth must be a tremendous feeling of accomplishment it's not just me I mean I'm someone that that organizes and helps but it goes to every single person here from the cook to the guy who's helping load the pipe to the electrician that comes in and runs the cable and checks the lights - it's it's everybody plays a role and it looks like you have a great team we've gone to great lengths and depths to explore Brazil's rich minerals but to see the best of the best you don't have to travel far it is a spectacular collection you know we have 34 cases of men about a hundred and fifty minerals plus and essentially all the pieces are from private collections from people around the country well I'm all about the composition I don't even care so much about the size I mean I love that it's big right but even more importance to composition and the fact that we have all these different species together in a way that complements so you have contrasting colors contrasting textures and it just I mean it sounds melodramatic but I think of this as as showing how these crystals sort of leap out of the earth as they're forming and then to end up with this piece of art that just appears out of nothing out of fluids to me is incredible and so I always I always wanted this piece this has a composition to it that I love it is it's just really special like [Music] treasure hunters mineral collectors love to share the beauty of their fines but minerals are more than just treasures they're a testament to the history of the earth and its people's these wonders of nature are physical tokens that can be enjoyed for generations to come [Music] 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: 202,503

Keywords: MINERALS, GEM HUNTING, MINERAL HUNTING, MINERAL COLLECTION, ROCK COLLECTION, ROCK COLLECTING, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, MINES, CAVES, EXPLORING, JEWELRY, GEM DEALING, JUNGLE, MINERAL EXPLORERS, SOUTH AMERICA, MINING, TREASURE, SPELUNKING, GEM POCKET, GEMS, NATURAL TREASURE, ROCKS, CRYSTALS, CRYSTAL COLLECTING, AQUAMARINE, QUARTZ, AMETHYST, GEODES, RUTILE, SMOKEY ALLIGATOR QUARTZ, TOURMALINE, BRAZIL, BRAZILIAN MINERALS, MINAS GERAIS, PEDERNEIRA MINE, ROCKHOUNDING, MINING GEM HUNTING

Id: 98_mKdT97V0

Length: 26min 14sec (1574 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020