The Giant Crystals of Brazil documentary of Patrick Voillot

out of the original chaos along the eternal path of time man has marked his way with stones in answer to his prayers the earth gave him a gift beyond his wildest dreams [Music] a crystal so huge he couldn't but admired it was a giant crystal and it's land Brazil a moon Steiner is a German gem cutter he's known to some of his contemporaries as the Picasso of precious stones in the world of gem cutters moon Steiner is an original whose innovative cutting style as akin to sculpture [Music] [Music] the giant crystals enabled him to fully express his art he scopes them while totally respecting the vagaries of nature the hard part is to complete to make a combination between the nature crystallization and to design what you like to do this is very hard because the the crystallization the nature is such strong that you're really most of time they don't like to touch it but if it's that's not enough you need to make it work with it and you need to know a lot about crystals of course because if you only cut inside like this and you don't know the angel then that means you don't see Raziel is a true melting pot nation where different races and cultures have intermixed since the 17th century the Southeast region represents a little more than 10% of the territory and houses almost half of the Brazilian population economically rich thanks to its large cities such as Sao Paulo Rio and Belo Horizonte the southeast has a great wealth of natural resources it's one of the world's leading producers of gemstones and crystals [Music] in Rio de Janeiro Jules Sauer has built up a financial empire through the buying and selling of mines and crystals he started out very young and his passion for crystals is strong today as ever you know it has an amazing power of concentration because it has never accepted the outside temperature it's a living crystal its temperatures around 12 degrees whereas ours is 36 degrees if you place your head on the crystal that gives your mind the power of concentration I'm not joking there dozens of books to prove it no no you should save the crystal because my friends coming his name's Patrick crystals transparent no the torch light passes through it so it's translucent then about 100 kilometers from Belo Horizonte in the ouro preto region is an imperial topaz mine this gemstone is extremely rare and its color varies from yellow to pink [Music] I mean that a key to this mind in the Europe retro region is called Kapow that one mean the Kadeem mode easing digit it's a mind that has been worked since imperial times it's too bad monkey that's it Empress gain here because it was a byway for the Emperor's who left Rio de Janeiro to come to ouro preto you know here is a name given by author put it no no Samina in our mind that production isn't big loss once again was Mizen we reach a total production of 35 to 40 kilos of topaz a month miss Lu Tao this is a sequel and out of these 35 to 40 kilos we'll have 600 grams that can be cut which makes around 3,000 carats for cutting energy trays new kilowatts lapidaries I split a sonde deposit video that faith the default map in the l1 spot Imperial topaz mining has to comply with certain parameters of security and profitability Neela with the help of a machine we pick the topaz directly out of the clay soil in which it's contained drag scraper yes Tamaki no H this extracting machine deposits the soil in a sieve which after washing retains the topaz bearing gravel hippo fising this material transformed under llama attack he say Gisela senado point she died G this part represents around 1 percent of the original quantity and that's where the topaz is found Gregg Ava's bone trauma is theta this gravel is placed on a sorting belt where the Topaz is sorted and then placed in deposit boxes in order to be transported to the central office Systema G quarries rocky seizure conducido sqi central the entire operation is carried out under camera surveillance in order to ensure a maximum security this mechanized mine is owned by two partners in all the mines the theft of stones is something to be feared as the rare stones of excellent quality represents the major part of the mines profits here the surveillance methods are extremely sophisticated in order to guard against theft every movement is filmed and recorded the regulations are very strict and are respected at the Kapow mine giant topaz crystals are sometimes found like the one that was 30 centimeters long and as wide as a beer can nicknamed the monster the most famous topaz found in the oral croteau region is called the Braganza it weighs 1680 carats and is set in the Portuguese royal crown it was long believed to be a diamond the topaz is often used in jewelry making it's a hard stone 8 on the Mohs hardness scale where the diamond is a 10 it's composed of aluminium fluorine silica and oxygen it's often imitated by other gemstones that are similar to it but locking its natural luster like the citrine for example the Topaz is sometimes heat treated at 450 degrees centigrade to enhance its color but the use of this process has to be indicated at the time of the sale and considerably reduces the stones value I mean look up Ola I mean the Kapow mine is a mind that is favored by the color of the topaz's that are found here we have here a range of colors that go from pale yellow to deep lilacs almost red the range of colors is extremely varied the Topaz is formed in the depth of the earth at a temperature of approximately 300 degrees centigrade under pressures of around 2,500 bars from the geological surveys it is believed that the Kapil mine has reserves of gemstones for 50 more years of mining in Ouro Preto which has become a museum town of Brazilian Baroque art there now remains but the memory of gold certain parts of the town seem to be frozen in another epic in the latter half of the 18th century the town was a flourishing center of intellectual and artistic activity and it's here that in 1789 the independence movement broke out headed by Tara Dante's and known as the inconfidência mineira this rebellion arose in reaction to the crippling taxes levelled by the Portuguese crown on the miners it's on the main square that bears his name today that tiradentes the symbol of Brazilian independence was hanged and quartered in 1792 it's not good we can find better ones that Gouveia not do all also you think so governor door bigger ones much bigger in a better quality what's there way before gorillas though plus 300 kilos they are more there now much more on the Brazilian giant crystal and gemstones route the wares of the ouro preto stone dealers are of relatively little interest it's at teófilo otoni that a large part of the region's best stones are brought to be sold this town is the major trade center for gemstones from the Minas Gerais region the garimpeiros come here to sell the rough or cut stones on the main square the biggest world-renowned Brazilian dealers have their main office in this town this is the case of high Sun al owal with his father buys and sells the region's finest gemstones that's it g-good the problem today is the giant crystals are rare all don't come across one often I got this hope you can find many beautiful crystals I mean them but smaller ones I your pasta telephone I tell you we can try our luck with one of the mining operations in the era sowwy region though now I'm going to call someone to see if they know where you can see one of these crystals I lose that hello Lucy Lucy how are you son this is paratah zero team up to my job you text now let me ask you something I have some friends here we're looking for quartz pyramid crystals producing dual quads Grande Raquel experience Granta you wouldn't tell you got proud okay I'll try and get hold of al Miko thanks buddy God it's difficult to find someone who has some but if you like I'll make another phone call and see what I can find for you it's not easy great okay Jo Thanks thank God there's a man over an hour sorry who's on a line that can produce at any moment now so if you want to go over there and take a look there's no problem meet you in our so e and which is about 280 kilometers from here speaking of giant crystals there are many other types of minerals produced in this region not only quartz you'll tell them oh I have something else here that I can show you this is it it's an aquamarine exactly L I think it weighs five and a half kilos thank you displays five kilos 320 grams it's fantastic fantastic Motors repair I have another stone it comes from the region where you want to go IRA so weak he's funky producing this is a sort of thing they produced there today this stone costs around six to seven hundred dollars a carat and it's about 200 carats he was extracted near Paradise Park which is a region a little father of north yoki and these are the other cut stones from the same Paradise Park region except that it's a deposit that has produced three different colors blue yellow and bicolor aris Aoi is a small town 230 kilometers from teófilo otoni independent local miners called garimpeiros are in the process of extracting a giant quartz crystal weighing around two tons in order for a giant quartz crystal to form an atom of silicon circulating in the Earth's crust has to bind with two atoms of oxygen the quartz germ is born the molecules of silicon oxide SiO 2 linked up in a repeated uniform pattern producing a crystal the crystals large size is due to its steady growth in an undisturbed milieu over a long period of time the a geological time scale being a million years the rate of cooling has to be slowed the provision of matter silicon oxide in the middle has to be constant in order to enable the crystal phases to develop progressively over time the subsoil of Minas Gerais is one of the Earth's richest in giant minerals and precious stones here the stones are not only precious for their aesthetic value they also play a strategic role thousands of miners are employed in the mining of ports which is highly sought after for its piece of electric properties since the Second World War 10,000 tons of quartz have been exported to the United States 80 million cut plaques of this mineral have been used for military purposes despite its weight the miners extract this giant with great care so as not to damage the faces and edges of its crystal it's rare to find intact crystals they are often naturally chipped cracked and discolored by Brown iron oxide the largest crystals are the most affected by the tectonic activity that has taken place during the five hundred or so million years of their existence this activity has left very visible traces in the quarry such as faults the experts estimates at one in a thousand the number of giant crystals that possess a flawless shape crystallinity transparency and characteristic color the lure of profit has incited the mine owners to systematically break up these huge crystals for the piece of electric industry or more simply for making a bash trade all these factors are responsible for the rarity of giant crystals today in 1959 one of Brazil's greatest mineral collectors dr. del F lost his chance of acquiring a perfect mono crystal weighing 7 tons the mine owner preferred breaking it up in order to find its transparent core the only part to be of any value for industry unfortunately the crystal was shattered for nothing none of the pieces were usable for industrial purposes both the collector and the mine owner saw their hopes - the garimpeiros are paid a percentage for their findings the women are also obliged to participate in the mine work in order to improve their living conditions daba I work I break up the rocks I give it to the boss I wait 15 days yeah then I come and get my share of the money he keeps her for himself and pays me the other half [Music] the monthly salary is very low and not fixed but the miners are grateful to find this work in this region that suffers alternatively from drought and flooding they are always hopeful of finding an exceptional stone they will enable them to have a better life I start work at 7 I arrive at 7 and I leave it to these I come home give the children their bath do some housework make the lunch and then we go back there again the next day over there we extract precious stones crystals one day I hope to find a big crystal I mean that great value to have a better life for myself for my children so they won't have to have a life like mine and their fathers who has to work so hard a story of Chico Rey he was a black slave who worked hard they found a lot of gold and he became rich he had a lot of money and he was able to buy his own freedom and that of many other slaves and today he's considered as a prince here everyone sings his praises here we're in the Chico Rayman hey hey Chico Rey was an African was brought from Africa to Brazil as a slave work in this mine which was worked solely with hammer and chisel tons of gold were extracted here gold and diamonds that were destined for Portugal so after several years of laboring in the mines for two Portuguese men Chico Rey finally managed to buy his freedom and that of 44 other slaves he finally became owner of the mine in the sides of these walls there are holes called boo coals and when the slaves were working here they hid some of the gold and gold dust they found in these holes in order to donate it to the Church of Saint FA janilla which is the black demons church they cover themselves with whale grease which enabled them to take all this gold dust out and they come out dancing - conga dough which was the black people's dance so that the Portuguese wouldn't notice anything when they arrived at the church they washed themselves and all this gold dust fell off their bodies and it's with this gold they managed to build this church began in Paros live in huts near the mine site or in the neighboring villages the living conditions here are very harsh there's no running water no electricity and no doctor available to treat them if they have a health problem or an accident which is often the case with the dynamite they use it's homemade and accidents are frequent the back passages of the mine are not propped up and the operation is risky this kind of explosive is necessary however in order to reach the rock layers that house the giant crystals [Music] the giant crystals are formed in a pegmatite rock this is a silicate rock that is rich in silica combined with diverse metallic oxides the minerals form there in huge crystals 1% of pegmatite rocks contain small caves whose walls are covered with crystals for these crystals to develop their base constituents need to be present and stable over a long period of time all these conditions are very uncertain rendering giant crystals extremely rare in Brazil erosion has caused the disappearance of thick layers of originally very hard rock the surface layers have therefore become concentrated in more resistant minerals such as quartz that is particularly sought after by the miners there's a scene here that should have some very clear ones and back there there is another seam that we can work we just need to dig and extract it'll take some time there's a lot of crystal yes lots of crystals beautiful ones too it's rare the one that's covered should have some good ones you should have some both above and below there accidents sometimes but that's normal you just have to be careful that's all we can start extracting now we need to blast it to open up the scene a prio mina tellin em okay manual we're going to start CBS aqui a multiple was named the work here is very dangerous I mean like me for example a month ago I had an accident in the mine look what happened to me you the ladder broke and I fell to the bottom landing on my ribs who else died they transported me to teófilo otoni and thanks to God I was saved I'm happy I found this Amiga came to Peru and my friends it's very dangerous here because of the snakes there are a lot of very dangerous snakes can we even kill snakes inside the houses I once killed five corals but thanks to God life sweet here and we get by all right in these mines acetylene lamps are used for lighting it's an age-old process the water drops onto calcium carbide provoking a chemical reaction that gives off flammable acetylene gas it's a good inexpensive source of light it is ideally suited to this type of mining work extracting the crystal is no easy job great care has to be taken so as not to damage it and thus preserve its value the miners have attempted to dislodge it with hammers and chisels but in vain The Rock's too hard so once again they have no choice but to use dynamite to blast it they Estrada the owner of the site goes into the mine to take a look at this latest discovery for himself he discusses it with Antonio his partner I'm going to extract the stones and I'll sell you five kilos thanks you sell me five kilos and I'll sell you ten kilos when I've extracted them okay vehicle idea do you have any clear voice nada no I don't have any clear ones it needs to be really clear for cutting this is another kind you can cut this I know I'll take it but I wanted clear ones that's a lot could you stop by at the office and I'll show you something when the crystal isn't too big the garimpeiros hollered out of the mine like a wild beast after a hunt watched buys a estrada they loaded onto a truck its journey begins the first stop of joint will be honest [Music] the most interesting thing about the squats is it has twin crystals which are born within the stone and it has also a muscovite which is a special a kind of mica which which make it rarer than if it would be just a stone itself whenever I by stands I keep the best for myself and these stones are not for sale they can be given one day if we find any more but unfortunately the search for gem stone is more difficult than ever before because the cost of labour is rising when I started in 1938 gemstones were extremely rare because nobody liked them or nobody cared if you are curious enough and we have enough health we know that Brazil still will remain the paradise of gemstones for the next hundreds of years three or four hundred years because it's a one-time harvest but I know personally that we did not find all the good gemstones I hope that my grand grandsons will still search for gemstones [Music] jewel sours whole life revolves around stones in Rio de Janeiro which houses the head office of his jewelry and gemstones company he has created a Museum of crystals each one bigger and more beautiful than the next his collection includes an enormous aquamarine crystal weighing 70 kilos a blue topaz of the same weight and numerous rock crystals of remarkable purity all weighing over 100 kilos Brazil is his territory and in particular Mina's getting's a region with very high concentrations of gemstones but the other regions of this immense country are not totally outdone 1600 kilometers from Rio is porto alegre the capital of rio grande do sul a 500 kilometer drive northwest of here is the small town of Amity stove [Music] the world's largest production of amethyst over 350 tons per month comes from this area the amethyst is a purple colored quartz that is frequently used in jewelry making the famous rings of Bishops are settled [Music] at the time when the great dinosaurs walked the earth from 150 to 110 million years ago enormous lava flows spread across this region large bubbles of gas were trapped at during the rock formation hot silicate rich solutions circulated here the amethyst started to crystallize progressively absorbing the solution contained in the bubbles this phenomenon gave birth to geodes that resemble huge eggs imprisoned in black basalt whenever the miners find one of these geodes they drill a small hole in the rock face in order to insert a special lamp to observe the qualities of the crystals inside gilberto bottle Uzi is one of Brazil's leading amethyst dealers he exports throughout the world he buys his geodes still intact of course directly from the mine that's fine how much is it about five or six rails a kilo in this color yes and when is it coming out it's too late today can we come back tomorrow to negotiate yes you can come back to negotiate have you extracted many stones mr. Roma a few not really stones just small pieces the production is good are you satisfied with it there are good days and bad days that's how it is with stones you never know what you're going to get you can have five or six excellent pieces all at once and then a lot of pieces that aren't worth anything and this year has a lot of the merchandise already been extracted yes there's always some we always find some have you had many buyers but there are a lot here I'd like to buy you want to buy and pay whoever gives me the right price for it gets it and despite his down-and-out appearance Roma who smokes only corn leaf cigarettes is one of the richest landowners in the region he owns no less than 10 mines that produce a total of 8 to 10 tons of amethyst per month he barely knows how to write but he can certainly count and has a reputation of being a very tough businessman here we're a far cry from the poorly paid prospectors and garimpeiros everyone has a share in the profits 20% goes to the landowner 40% to the mine operator who provides the necessary equipment and the remaining 40% is shared out between the miners who often form partnerships with members of their own family the amethyst is believed to bring in 40 million dollars a year to this region Roma between two sips of Catoosa likes to talk about the magical properties of the stone that has made him rich drinking wine out of an amethyst glass prevents drunkenness this property has its origin in ancient times how beautiful was the maiden amethyst her beauty so fragile and tender which should have protected her attractive the eyes of Bacchus the God who was drunk again pursue the chase maid who fled from him in terror not knowing what to do to escape her would-be seducer amethyst besiege Diana's help the goddess was moved by the maidens plight and when the drunken God finally managed to seize hold of the object of his desire the lathe and delicate body of the Maiden transformed itself into a hard shiny stone the sobering-up and filled with shame and remorse Bacchus decided to combine in the stone his two great passions the purple of the wine that he loved more than anything and the name of amethyst the lovely Maiden his heart filled with repentance he went even further wanting to preserve his worshippers from the dire consequences of drunkenness he endowed the humble stone with the power to dispel the harmful fumes and effects of wine [Music] the still intact geodes are transported to Gilberto's factory where they are cut with enormous diamond saws the faces of the Jude are then polished [Music] hundreds of geodes are stocked in his warehouses ready to be exported all over the world [Music] [Music] no me Elizabeth my name is Jo Beth Oh Lewis Bertolucci's I deal in precious stones such as Emma fists are God's aquamarines citrine's and also for Jimmy and our strongest product is really the amethyst we export around 15 tonnes per month yes the Mercado dear all this merchandise comes from the amethyst mining region which produces the largest quantities of this type of stone in the world these stones come in many different shapes and sizes and way from three to four kilos up two to three or even four tonnes we've already sold pieces weighing over two tons which are now in European museums or in the United States my art basically the largest piece was a piece of 2 tonnes which was sent to Italy but other customers have found even bigger pieces not for me they do exist although it's difficult to find pieces of that size they're extremely rare Gilberto's brother manages the store in Rio where he centralizes stones that come from different regions of Brazil the amethyst scum from the Rio Grande do Sul region from the ear eye vision which is northwest of the Rio Grande River near Argentina Argentina geodes come in various sizes there are small geodes of this size that are totally closed and there are geodes that can house a person two meters two and a half meters tall weighing 500 600 800 a thousand kilos but these big geodes are rare most of them are of average size Segundo which is to service some formats now amethyst geodes are believed to have formed during the tertiary age so it took a million years for them to crystallize and develop for math to finally become the marbles that they are today so eSport artists know these stones are for export export a semitone we've been exporting them all over the world for several years now nós temos como grains compradores Estados Unidos our biggest buyers are the United States and European countries such as Germany France Spain and others that's not Cespedes our Brazilian stones are often used in esoteric practices the mainly they are also used in alternative medicine cures we've been developing this new market here in Brazil for the past few years it's a trend that started some time ago Mercado Aquino bouzouki and one more the kids just use you I went to Temple the key as well makes the standard a simple beautiful it's presently becoming an important market in Brazil we have a lot of customers who buy these stones for esoteric practices some use them in health cures other pieces are used in magic rituals here they're used a great deal on esoteric rituals and alternative medicines you in Brazil the use of stones and esotericism is extremely frequent in the present case the positioning of the gemstones on the chakras is borrowed from oriental medicine and is supposed to heal the body and the spirit of the patient the relationship between man and the natural elements has great importance [Music] [Applause] [Music] the embody ritual inspired by religious African beliefs consists in the channeling of natural forces according to its practitioners who are many in Brazil the crystals serve to attract spiritual energy and are thought to possess a great knowledge of all things experienced in the past this knowledge is transmitted to the human being during these Richards [Music] the warehouses vasconcelos contain many different minerals but this isn't its main specialty for several generations his family has collected and exported brazil's most beautiful and largest giant crystals this is torn is larger and better than this one because this one is more transparent something you know you can see inside 80% and this is only 60% I think go to China you know because they have a big manufacturers there that's a shame because this is a piece for museum you know I don't want to sell to any cutters you know I would like to solve for Museum of for you know some people who could keep you know our natural eases that's about 150 million years Oh [Music] so for cutters they will make beautiful jobs but kill the naturals that's four thousand two hundred eighty kilos this piece that's the you know the largest and perfect I have we have fired this is a white quartz we founded this piece with 1600 kilos but after blaster you know that was all damaged so we enjoyed to make a asfar this is fair now is with 65 centimetres and close to 400 kilos you know yes we solid some piece for the museum for the French Museum my father sold I don't remember for for which museum but for sure we have a pieces over there the giant crystals saved from the manufacturing and craft industries will be sent abroad they can be found all over the world in private collections or in museums where they are exhibited to the public like a work of art produced by Nature in March 1983 a giant crystals exhibition was held in the Museum of Natural History in Paris it took 8 years of negotiations and preparations before the 80 finest pieces of the de left collection arrived in Paris media de left selected them over 25 years out of thousands and thousands of examined pieces their success with the public was immediate it's thanks to the tenacity of the gallery's director professor all visual Chanel that we can admire today the world's finest collection of giant crystals giant crystals are found in the Brazilian on pigmented rocks Blasi and in a certain number of pigment types of other countries on that they are mainly quartz feldspars barrels and topaz crystal he do pass the biggest crystal ever recorded in the history of humanity was a barrel weighing 300 tons which was mined in Madagascar that day an entire mine of Beryl crystal we know for me to form a crystal group of 3 tonnes like this one it takes several centuries [Music] Brazil has many more treasures to offer that still remain to be discovered in Minas Gerais the old garimpeiros say that at the end of an endless road at the point where the Sun sets is a mountain that conceals within its bosom the world's biggest and most beautiful crystal [Music] you

Channel: Voillot Patrick

Views: 358,418

Rating: 4.6918769 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, gemmologist, gemstone, precious stones, gemmology, Patrick Voillot, pierre précieuse, pierres précieuses, jewelry, stone, movie, tv, frenchtv, jeweler, prices, million dollars, expedition, mine, mining, Place Vendôme, Garimpeiros, dynamite, monster, crystal, Brazilian, Giant Crystals, Governador Valadares, Araçuai, Capon, The Ouro Preto, Imperial Topaz, Brasil, Amethyst, esoteric, Museum of Natural History

Id: voAzWXnVRLI

Length: 51min 56sec (3116 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 14 2019