Wieslaw Gierlowski
An unexpected gift of nature
A small north-western corner of the Ukraine, stretching along the border with Belarus in the area of the damp forests of the Polesie region, is full of amber deposits – perhaps not very high-yield, but very numerous and easy to extract. Polish and Russian scientists reported the presence of amber in the area of the former Kovel and Sarny counties, which once belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Second Polish Republic (between the World Wars). However, this presence never became common knowledge. It was only when the Soviet authorities began intensive geological prospecting in the deposit in Klesiv and Dubrovitsa near Sarny in 1979, and the authorities of independent Ukraine undertook industrial-scale extraction of amber from this deposit, that the people of this poor region started to penetrate the area intensively. From the very beginning this penetration was illegal and had no chance of legalisation because of the Ukraine’s state monopoly on amber extraction, purchase and processing. On the other hand, over 50% of the population of the amber-bearing area lost their livelihoods following the collapse of the Soviet collective farms and factories, so the opportunity to obtain considerable income from the extracting of amber made thousands of people take up the illegal practice.
The natural conditions were conducive to the unlicensed extraction of amber:
- the amber lies very shallowly in a sandy-clayey environment under a layer of swampy black earth and can be dug up using the simplest of methods
- most of the area is surrounded by forests, which makes police supervision difficult
- in the areas near the mature Rivers Horyn and Sluch there are also many bodies of stagnant water, which has made it possible to use the method of hydraulic rinsing proven in use in the Vistula River Delta. On the Polesie-Volyhn frontier, amber does not lie in a layer of fossilised “blue earth” as in Sambia, but in rather loose sandy layers
The large amber nuggets found in these deposits proved to be yet another incentive. Over 80% of the nuggets are suitable for jewellery, while in Sambia and the Vistula River Delta small nuggets, at best suitable for pressing, make up almost half of the output. The thousands of pits and even more numerous rinsing holes yield not only dozens of tonnes of material for large gemstones and for sculpting, but also unique nuggets, natural specimens weighing far more than those from Sambia and the post-glacial areas.
Most of these specimens find their way to Poland due to the proximity of the Polish-Ukrainian border on the River Bug and the high profile of Polish amber collectors in the Ukraine, who are always ready to buy valuable unique natural specimens. The Ukrainian customs services are not very keen on stopping the smuggling of amber from their country. At a recent conference in Kiev on the Ukrainian World of Amber, it was officially stated that there were no interceptions of smuggled amber in recent years, not only on the border with Poland, but also on the even more poorly protected borders with Belarus, Russia and Moldova.
Very large amber nuggets
As a result, amber exhibits in Polish museums pride themselves on record-size nuggets (either their own or those deposited by private collectors): The Castle Museum in Malbork has a nugget weighing 5,960 grams, while The Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk has a nugget weighing 4,540 grams and many others larger than the largest specimens in the post-Soviet collections of the museums in Kaliningrad and Palanga, even though those collections were accumulated from the output of large mines over four decades after World War II.
In the museum of the Ukrainian state monopoly, the Burshtyn Ukrainy company in Rivne, the largest nugget (and the only one with a unit weight of over one kilogram) weighs less than 1,200 grams. There are over a hundred such nuggets in Polish museums and private collections, over a dozen in Lithuania, with several in Western European countries as well. The largest specimens have reputedly been sold to the United Arab Emirates, whose agents are recently very active making purchases at any price.
The results of a state-run economy
All this is the result of archaic economic regulations which are obsolete in market economy conditions. These regulations are ostensibly there to protect the national interest, but in reality hinder the natural behaviour of entrepreneurs. Over the last decade, Poland, Lithuania and even Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast’ have been receiving a strong stream of excellent raw amber to a total of several dozen tonnes each year, when at the same time the Ukrainian monopolist’s own processing plant is withering due to the lack of material for processing. The plant is forbidden to purchase amber themselves, while the output from their mines is scant, as can be seen in the following figures:
Output in the Burshtyn Ukrainy mines (kilograms) in 1993-2006
| year |
'93 |
'94 |
'95 |
'96 |
'97 |
'98 |
'99 |
'00 |
'01 |
'02 |
'03 |
'04 |
'05 |
'06 |
| output |
920 |
1564 |
1154 |
2457 |
2752 |
2105 |
1288 |
422 |
2450 |
3455 |
1629 |
2644 |
2230 |
2955 |
The Burshtyn Ukrainy factory in Rivne is equipped with efficient amber working machines (mostly made in Lebork, Poland) and has the capacity to triple its production, but the stream of raw amber continues to head abroad.
Here it would be worthwhile commenting on the mining technology in the only currently operating strip mine on the Pugach deposit in Klesiv. They have a giant excavator there with a gigantic 5 m3 scoop, which they lower forcibly to the bottom of an 8-metre pit in order to dig into the amber-bearing layer. It is easy to imagine the impact such a hit makes on large amber nuggets. Perhaps this is the reason behind the absence of large amber nuggets in the Burshtyn Ukrainy storehouses and museum?
The Burshtyn Ukrainy state company received considerable investment support for mining and processing as a start-up, but still remains unprofitable and cannot become a player in the global market. Fortunately, the new Ukrainian government has announced radical economic reforms.
The Polish customs barrier
The smuggling of raw amber into Poland is well known both to our manufacturers and our customs authorities. In 1998, the Polish General Customs Inspectorate carried out a specialist study on Amber – the Grey Area. Developed by Dr Janusz Marszalec in September 1998, the study contained the following conclusions which are still valid today: “The smuggling has a tendency to grow” and “The small suitcase-carrying type of contraband precludes any mafia involvement in the practice.”
The study’s author indicates that in the conditions of mass border traffic on the Polish-Ukrainian border crossings, the intercepting of small quantities of amber smuggled by individuals in suitcases will most likely not yield any significant results so the relevant services should focus on intercepting attempts to smuggle larger batches. He also notes that, apart from the negative fiscal impact (loss of 3% customs and 16% VAT), suitcase smuggling is in fact desirable or even necessary for the well-developed Polish amber jewellery manufacturing business.
Turning customs officers’ attention to larger batches of amber has begun to yield results: from an initial several dozen kilograms per year (1998), through several hundred in later years to half a ton in 2006. In 2006, the single largest intercepted smuggling attempt reached 100 kg of high quality jewellery material. Polish customs officers also succeeded in intercepting a contraband of large natural specimens of amber, including a nugget weighing 1,825 g donated by the customs authorities to the Amber Department of the Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk and 8 other specimens which were donated to the University of Silesia’s collection. Several other specimens are to be donated to the Museum of the Earth (PAS) in Warsaw.
The year 2007 saw a clear drop in the detectability of raw amber smuggling from the Ukraine. On the other hand, considerable batches of ready amber gemstones (up to 100,000 pieces per batch) have appeared, usually made of amber clarified in autoclaves. The gemstones are usually of excellent quality: with no impurities or processing flaws, the majority of them in standard shapes and calibrated sizes. This is proof of the appearance of illegal (as the current Ukrainian law has it) processing workshops, which are technologically well equipped and hire professional staff.
Following the planned release of the Ukrainian economy from the present restrictions, these workshops can become both Poland’s competition in other markets and good legal partners for Polish jewellery manufacturers.
back to: reports on ambe
