EMERALD MINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 7

EMERALD MINES.

IN THE URAL MOUNTAINS, Worked for thousands of years by the crudest of methods, the fabulously' rich emerald mines of the Ural Mountains are now being modernised, by American machinery directed by American experts (slates the San Francisco Chroniclel. The mines are owned by Russia, but the Soviets are willing to allow Americans to run them in order fo develop their latent wealth. The mines are worked by Russians and the gems are cut and polished ready for the market, by men and women workers. It is necessary to delve 100 feet or more into the earth to find the beautiful emeralds. The digging is done with crude tools and methods exactly as it has been done for centuries. The workers have lived in the past in crude buildings usually of logs. Unmarried women live in special barracks, while those who are married have separate houses. The work of finishing the stones for the market has been done in a very primitive way. The workers use ancient tools m the delicate work of polishing the stones. , The workers have spent their, lives in the mines or the finishing shops, and in many cases their fathers and grandfathers before them worked in the same places, and under exactly the same monotonous conditions.

The skill of the men and women who finish the stones is famous the world over. Some of the most beautiful emeralds in, the world have ’ come from the Ural mines and workshops.