Stones, salts, crystals, and other natural resources are worth millions of dollars. But getting to them is no easy feat.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00:00 In Uruguay, Renato is setting off an explosive to reveal an ancient glittery stone, amethyst.
00:00:14 While in Italy, Enrico is cutting slabs off one of the most expensive marbles in the world,
00:00:21 Calacatta.
00:00:22 Stones, salts, crystals and other natural resources are worth millions of dollars, but
00:00:30 getting to them is no easy feat.
00:00:33 All over the world, miners are setting off on dangerous and strenuous missions, on mountaintops,
00:00:40 in underground tunnels and below the seas, to excavate these precious resources.
00:00:47 Our first stop is Scotland, where experienced stonemasons turn a rare granite into Olympic
00:00:54 curling stones worth over $600 a piece.
00:01:01 Using rare granite from just one island in the world, experienced stonemasons turn these
00:01:06 giant boulders into hundreds of uniform curling stones.
00:01:11 But these aren't just any curling stones.
00:01:13 They're the only ones allowed in the Olympic Games.
00:01:17 A single stone certified for the Olympics costs over $600.
00:01:22 That makes a full set of 16 stones worth $9,600.
00:01:28 So how are Olympic curling stones made?
00:01:31 And why are they so expensive?
00:01:36 Since 2006, every curling stone used in the Olympic Winter Games has come from here.
00:01:43 Masons produced stones since 1851, but today there are just 10 people in the world who
00:01:48 make them.
00:01:49 They love what they do.
00:01:51 They're very passionate about it because they know that this particular block of granite
00:01:55 they're working on that becomes a curling stone could be the stone that's thrown for
00:01:59 the gold medal at the Olympic Games.
00:02:01 It could be the stone that decides a world championship.
00:02:05 Every stone comes from one tiny island off the coast of Scotland.
00:02:10 For over a century, masons have ventured to Elsa Craig Island to harvest granite for curling
00:02:15 stones.
00:02:17 Until its lease expires in 2050, Case is the only company in the world with permission
00:02:21 to harvest granite here.
00:02:24 And for curling, Elsa Craig's granite structure is the gold standard.
00:02:29 But getting granite to the mainland is far from simple.
00:02:33 The harvesting process is a logistical work of art, I think.
00:02:39 There is nothing on the island, as you say.
00:02:40 It's uninhabited.
00:02:41 There's no water supply other than some running water from the rivers and streams on the island.
00:02:47 There's no electricity supply, so we have to take absolutely everything with us.
00:02:52 Case uses two types of granite from the island to produce curling stones.
00:02:56 First, there's blue-honed granite, which makes up the layer that runs along the ice.
00:03:02 Then common green is used for the part that strikes other stones.
00:03:06 This is Elsa Craig common green granite.
00:03:08 So this makes up the full body of the stone.
00:03:10 You can also see the slightly lighter, grayer color granite inside, and this is Elsa Craig
00:03:15 blue-honed.
00:03:17 The rock is densely constructed, thanks to how well its fine-grained crystals and the
00:03:22 feldspar interlock.
00:03:24 This makes the stone resilient.
00:03:26 While other rocks might crack or splinter, Elsa Craig granite stays intact amid cold
00:03:31 temperatures and collisions.
00:03:33 Most other rocks will have imperfections, like veins that cut through the stone.
00:03:38 And while it's not free from weaknesses, there aren't many throughout Elsa Craig rock.
00:03:44 Weaknesses make it more likely a stone will fracture upon hard impact, something that
00:03:48 would upend a curling game.
00:03:52 Before Case can begin making stones, each rock is cut into slabs.
00:03:57 But not all the granite the company harvests is suitable for a curling stone.
00:04:02 Sometimes areas of a slab have small imperfections that could cause it to erode or impact the
00:04:07 game.
00:04:08 It's generally because there's a flaw or a fissure or a crack or something in it.
00:04:13 This is where the eye of the masons comes in.
00:04:17 Throughout the process, they assess the granite and confirm it satisfies Olympic requirements.
00:04:23 The slab thickness, we're looking for 145 millimeters, 14.5 centimeters thick.
00:04:28 Then that gives us the ideal depth for coring, which then allows us to shape the stone while
00:04:33 retaining the weight.
00:04:35 On the slab, Case marks only the best parts worth coring, which are the areas it'll eventually
00:04:40 shape into stones.
00:04:43 We've gone to a lot of time and effort to bring this resource from an island over to
00:04:47 the mainland that we want to make the most effective use out of it.
00:04:51 We can get boulders off the island that can be in the region of five to seven tons.
00:04:55 They will yield way more than five or six cheeses per ton.
00:04:59 But if we average it out across a whole harvest, then if we get around six cheeses per ton,
00:05:04 we're doing pretty well.
00:05:05 They call them cheeses for no clear reason other than...
00:05:09 I suppose in one respect they maybe look like a Babybel cheese or something like that.
00:05:14 I've never really thought about it too deeply, to be honest.
00:05:19 While the process today largely depends on machines, it needs experienced craftspeople
00:05:24 to see each stage through.
00:05:26 The cutting process or the coring process is a skill or an art in itself.
00:05:32 So while it's semi-automatic in terms of feeding itself in, the speed is manually controlled
00:05:36 and that's where the skill of the operator comes in.
00:05:40 After each cheese has been cored, masons chip away the excess stone around the corners and
00:05:45 prepare it for shaping.
00:05:47 The International Olympic Committee determines the size, shape and weight of each stone for
00:05:52 the Games.
00:05:54 Before the stone reaches its final shape, masons fit the blue home granite into the
00:05:59 common green body.
00:06:03 The stone itself weighs 40 pounds, plus another pound for the handle.
00:06:09 After it reaches its final form, it's time to polish it.
00:06:13 Each stone needs to be uniform in weight, size and running surface.
00:06:19 The running surface on the bottom determines how much the stone curls.
00:06:23 To curl, there needs to be friction between the ice and the stone.
00:06:28 That roughness is achieved by the experienced hand of a mason.
00:06:35 Kaye stores granite over time, returning to Elsa Craig about once a decade.
00:06:41 Other producers harvest granite from the Trevor Quarry in Wales.
00:06:45 Kaye's one sourced granite from Trevor too, but Mark says quality control issues turned
00:06:50 it away.
00:06:52 And it didn't hurt that the World Curling Federation preferred Elsa Craig stones.
00:06:56 "They found that the Kaye stones with the insert, the blue horn insert, were the best
00:07:01 because they also discovered that having a curling stone that's not got a blue horn insert
00:07:07 will pit.
00:07:08 It will have a certain porosity.
00:07:10 It will pull in water and water and ice will then freeze.
00:07:13 When water freezes, it expands, leads to the detriment or the damage to the stone."
00:07:19 While curling has recently skyrocketed in popularity, demand for stones has fluctuated
00:07:24 since the game began.
00:07:27 Curling is believed to have started in Scotland, but today, Canada is the most successful team
00:07:32 in the history of curling.
00:07:35 Curling here goes back to the late 19th century, when many of the Scots who immigrated to Canada
00:07:43 brought the game with them.
00:07:45 By the 50s, Canada was building hundreds of curling rinks.
00:07:49 Now retired, Jimmy Wiley worked at Kaye's during this period, and saw the company thrive
00:07:54 before demand dropped again.
00:07:56 "When all of these new ice rinks in Canada were satisfied, the demand fell off dramatically.
00:08:02 So we went from 25, 30 people down to about between 5 and 10 people."
00:08:10 A major component that's kept the game, and Kaye's, alive today, the Winter Olympics.
00:08:16 "When curling was put back into the Olympics, it was great.
00:08:20 It was a momentous moment in terms of a curling stone manufacturer because it suddenly opened
00:08:27 curling up to the world.
00:08:28 In 1990, there were only 25 countries in the world that were in any way involved in curling,
00:08:34 and now 20 years later, that's almost tripled."
00:08:37 As of 2022, 67 countries compete in curling.
00:08:41 Naturally, that's created an uptick in demand for stones, which has carried over into their
00:08:46 price.
00:08:47 "We have increased our sales, which is really, really good news.
00:08:51 Having said that, we've also increased our costs because we have to go back for granite
00:08:55 more frequently to satisfy the demand."
00:08:58 In 2000, Kaye's harvested about 1,500 metric tons of common green and about 300 metric
00:09:05 tons of blue hone.
00:09:06 13 years later, it took 2,500 metric tons of common green and 500 metric tons of blue
00:09:12 hone.
00:09:13 Fortunately, for the growing interest in the sport and for the only supplier of Olympic
00:09:18 curling stones, supply isn't a problem.
00:09:22 "The last harvest in November 2020, we took less than 0.01% of the island.
00:09:29 So we're scratching the surface.
00:09:31 The whole island is made of granite.
00:09:33 We're not making that big a dent in it."
00:09:37 Hundreds of miners work inside an active volcano, here in Indonesia, battling toxic fumes all
00:09:45 day long.
00:09:48 They're mining sulfur, which locals call "devil's gold."
00:09:53 Working conditions here are so dangerous, many miners don't live past 50 years old.
00:10:04 Miners like Mestar carry up to 200 pounds of sulfur on their backs, up and down these
00:10:09 steep cliffs.
00:10:10 And Mestar's been doing it for 30 years.
00:10:20 The sulfur is used in everything from matches and rubber to cosmetic products.
00:10:24 It's even what makes our sugar white.
00:10:32 But most of the world's sulfur comes from oil and gas refining, making volcanic mines
00:10:36 like this relatively obsolete.
00:10:39 Yet these miners are still working, earning about $12 to $17 a day.
00:10:45 Because in this remote part of Indonesia, it's one of the better-paying jobs.
00:10:57 So why is this form of sulfur mining still happening?
00:11:01 And what makes this such a risky business?
00:11:04 "If I wake up, it's between 1 or 2 in the morning.
00:11:13 Breakfast is nothing but rice and a bowl of soup.
00:11:18 It's a bit of a waste, people say."
00:11:24 "At this time, it's a bit of a disaster.
00:11:34 It's a bit of a disaster."
00:11:39 This is as far as Mestar can go on his bike.
00:11:43 There are no roads to the crater, so he has to walk the rest of the way.
00:11:48 It's a two-mile hike, up to the ridge of Ijen volcano.
00:11:52 He takes only his basket and a crowbar, down into the 1,000-foot-deep crater.
00:12:02 "We ask that we are accompanied and protected by the people who guard this place."
00:12:10 Here, he faces the volcano's extreme environment.
00:12:14 The air can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:12:18 And he works near one of the world's most toxic volcano lakes.
00:12:22 "The acid is dangerous.
00:12:29 If it touches your mouth or teeth, it can kill you.
00:12:41 If it gets into your stomach, it can kill you."
00:12:48 And there's the smoke.
00:12:51 "The smoke is very stinky.
00:13:01 It smells like fried eggs.
00:13:06 But if it gets into your nose or mouth, it's bad."
00:13:16 He battles two types of sulfur smoke.
00:13:19 The first comes from deep inside the volcano, and is channeled through these pipes.
00:13:24 "If the smoke gets into your body, it's bad.
00:13:29 It's scary.
00:13:34 It's bad for your health.
00:13:39 It's bad for your health."
00:13:42 While mining company PT Jandi Grimby owns the license to run the mine,
00:13:47 the miners are freelance contractors, so they have to pay for their own gear.
00:13:51 And many can't afford gas masks.
00:13:54 Instead, they use handkerchiefs or towels dipped in water to keep the sulfur powder from sticking.
00:14:00 But it's deadly.
00:14:04 So if miners see big clouds of thin white smoke coming from the lake, they have to evacuate.
00:14:14 That's why Mestar needs to get here so early.
00:14:17 The winds pick up through the day, pulling more white smoke towards the miners.
00:14:21 But these types of smoke have lasting health effects.
00:14:43 But the smoke from inside the volcano is crucial for sulfur production.
00:14:47 This is how it works.
00:14:49 When the super hot smoke hits the cooler air outside, it condenses liquid and drips off the pipe.
00:15:07 As it solidifies and cools, the sulfur will turn yellow, and miners can begin chipping off blocks.
00:15:14 It's the sulfur's two colors that give it the name "Devil's Gold."
00:15:19 Miners use their bare hands to move these blocks.
00:15:22 Although touching solid sulfur frequently can cause rashes and blisters,
00:15:26 Mestar says that as long as it's cool and yellow, a sulfur is fine to touch.
00:15:42 Pre-pandemic, the miners could extract up to 25 tons daily.
00:15:46 But since 2020, they've been working in two separate shifts to socially distance.
00:15:51 That's lowered the miners' capacity to only 10 tons of sulfur a day.
00:15:57 Once he fills his baskets, Mestar hoists them up on his shoulder to hike back.
00:16:02 But that sulfur is not a light load.
00:16:09 That's about 154 pounds. Mestar himself weighs just 132.
00:16:20 Some of the younger miners can carry up to 200 pounds in one load.
00:16:37 They have to haul it up the steep walls of the crater.
00:16:54 Some do the treacherous hike in flip-flops.
00:17:17 Once he reaches the rim of the crater, Mestar can transfer the sulfur to his trolley and begin the two miles back.
00:17:24 And he'll do this trip a second time today.
00:17:41 P.T. Jandigrimbi, the mining company, also owns this weighing station and the factory where the sulfur ends up.
00:17:52 At the factory, workers boil the sulfur and run it through a series of filters.
00:17:57 They have to remove any contaminants, like sand or dirt.
00:18:00 Then they pour it out onto the factory floor to cool.
00:18:04 The sulfur is loaded into sacks and sent to sugar factories nearby.
00:18:09 It's processed into sulfuric acid, the world's most commonly used chemical.
00:18:15 It's used in everything from matches, fireworks and gunpowder to detergent, paper and batteries.
00:18:21 It's what makes sugar white, and it's an essential ingredient in rubber products and even winemaking.
00:18:27 But 98% of the world's sulfur comes from oil and gas refining.
00:18:32 It's a byproduct of refining, and oil companies are required by law to process it safely.
00:18:38 What's created is a lot of pure sulfur, a purity that's necessary for making products like fertilizer.
00:18:44 Today, the sulfur industry from oil and gas is worth almost $13 billion and is expected to keep growing.
00:18:52 And it's left natural mines and volcanoes unnecessary, especially since mined sulfur isn't as pure.
00:18:58 It can be acidic or contain sand.
00:19:01 Yet Egypt is one of the only places left in the world where people still mine sulfur this way.
00:19:07 But why do they do it, despite the danger?
00:19:10 For the mining company, it's easier and cheaper to get sulfur from Egyen.
00:19:14 For the sulfur miners, the pay is a lot more than other jobs on the island, such as farming.
00:19:21 For example, if you work in a construction site, you have to wait a week for your salary.
00:19:26 If you work in a farm, you have to wait two weeks.
00:19:31 But if you work in Egyen, even though there are many obstacles and it's dangerous,
00:19:38 it's faster to get a job.
00:19:47 The mining company pays on the weight of their loads.
00:19:50 They get about nine cents per kilo.
00:19:52 With two loads, Misdar can make $17 a day.
00:19:56 The mining company did not respond to our request for comment on why the miners are paid so little
00:20:00 for what's considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
00:20:04 Another possible reason this mine is still open?
00:20:07 Tourism.
00:20:11 At night, visitors flock here to see the blue flame from the sulfur gas.
00:20:16 During the day, tourists hike up to take in the vistas.
00:20:19 Protected with their gas masks, they watch miners work without masks of their own.
00:20:25 Some miners are now becoming tour guides or making sulfur souvenirs.
00:20:29 But most keep working, as they always have.
00:20:32 Sometimes we get 50,000 or 100,000 rupiahs.
00:20:35 Sometimes we get local visitors, local tour guides.
00:20:38 Sometimes they give us money when we need it.
00:20:43 That's the joy of being a miner.
00:20:45 It's never hard, even though the work is difficult.
00:20:49 Actually, for other guests, like the country,
00:20:54 working as a miner is not a respectable job.
00:21:03 They even say, "Why don't you work elsewhere?"
00:21:08 It's very dangerous.
00:21:11 That's what the guests of other countries say.
00:21:17 But what can I do?
00:21:20 I have my job here.
00:21:24 At the end of the day, Misdar returns home to eat dinner with his family and rest.
00:21:36 Ijen looms over them, a symbol of how Misdar provides for his family's lives,
00:21:41 while it slowly takes his, a heavy weight to carry on his shoulders.
00:21:48 This is pink Himalayan salt.
00:21:53 It may look pretty, but a pinch of this stuff will cost you.
00:21:57 And 100 grams of pink Himalayan salt can cost up to 20 times the price of generic table salt.
00:22:02 So why is it so expensive?
00:22:06 Pink Himalayan salt has gathered a cult following.
00:22:15 Its supporters claim that it helps with everything from weight loss, reducing aging,
00:22:19 regulating sleep, and even increasing your libido.
00:22:22 And while the pink salt itself can cost $10 per kilo,
00:22:25 the products made using it can be far more expensive.
00:22:28 But what actually is the difference between types of salt,
00:22:31 and where have these claims come from?
00:22:35 To get an idea of what makes pink Himalayan salt different,
00:22:38 we need to look at the different types of salt in the industry.
00:22:41 Table salt is often made by drilling into underground seabeds,
00:22:45 pumping out the salt water, and then refining it in purification plants.
00:22:49 Natural minerals like magnesium or potassium are taken away.
00:22:53 Sea salt is made by evaporating seawater using the sun or indoor heaters.
00:22:58 Unlike table salt, it normally has no extra chemicals added,
00:23:02 and its natural minerals stay intact.
00:23:05 Rock salt is different.
00:23:07 In certain regions of the world, buried hundreds of feet below the ground,
00:23:11 are the remains of evaporated seas.
00:23:14 This mineral, halite, gets harvested by drilling the rock face,
00:23:17 crushing the salt, and splintering it into pieces.
00:23:21 Pink salt can only be found in very few places,
00:23:24 from the Murray River in Australia to Maras in Peru.
00:23:27 But the supply is far from limited.
00:23:29 The majority of pink salt mines in the world are in Pakistan,
00:23:32 at the base of the Himalayas.
00:23:34 And the Kewa salt mine in Pakistan produces 350,000 tons per year.
00:23:40 So, is pink salt healthier?
00:23:43 The salt has an estimated 84 different minerals in it,
00:23:46 which give it its pink color.
00:23:48 But these minerals only make up around 2% of the salt.
00:23:51 So apparently it's reported you can get around 84 different trace mineral elements.
00:23:58 However, it's such a very small percentage of the salt
00:24:02 that makes up these minerals that you are highly unlikely
00:24:05 to get any real benefit or any trace of them
00:24:08 in your regular serving of salt itself.
00:24:12 And I hate to be the bearer of disappointing news,
00:24:15 but it's pretty similar nutritionally.
00:24:18 Pink salt's supposed benefits aren't just about eating it, though.
00:24:22 And many people claim it has healing properties,
00:24:25 when either inhaled or even when used as a lamp.
00:24:28 I can see why trends come about.
00:24:31 So, for instance, there's a lot of different homeopathic remedies
00:24:35 that can seem very, very appealing,
00:24:37 but actually because they're not grounded in evidence,
00:24:40 a lot of the time a small hint of something having a promise
00:24:44 can get blown out of proportion, especially when it comes to the media,
00:24:47 especially in terms of beautiful-looking items.
00:24:51 And I think pink salt, of course, is a lot more appealing for a lot of people
00:24:55 when you compare it to your regular white salt.
00:25:00 So Himalayan salt doesn't have the health benefits claimed,
00:25:03 but it's still marketed as a luxury salt,
00:25:05 and global salt consumption is forecast to be worth $14.1 billion by 2020.
00:25:10 So does it taste any better for the price?
00:25:13 I think it tastes nicer, but I don't know if I just think it tastes nicer
00:25:20 because I know it's meant to taste nicer.
00:25:23 It doesn't taste that different.
00:25:27 It's a bit less harsh on the palate.
00:25:30 It doesn't sort of burn your tongue as much, which I guess is a good thing.
00:25:33 I couldn't really tell too much of a difference between them, to be honest.
00:25:36 If I was cooking with them, putting them in a dish,
00:25:39 I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them.
00:25:41 It just kind of tastes like salt.
00:25:44 There's one other big thing that's led to pink salt's popularity — Instagram.
00:25:49 It's because Instagram is an image-based platform,
00:25:52 so if you think about it, it's more attractive to take pictures
00:25:56 of something that's pink naturally or something that's bright green.
00:26:00 It's more, I would call it, aesthetic food.
00:26:03 So looking at how food appears, rather than it being a miracle benefit.
00:26:09 And I think if you are looking at social media on a whole,
00:26:13 it goes in seasons and it goes in whatever is the most photographed item.
00:26:18 I don't think it will be around forever.
00:26:22 [Music]
00:26:25 In Carrara, Italy, extracting Calicutta marble doesn't always go as planned.
00:26:35 It'll take more work to fix, but luckily it's still usable.
00:26:45 And in four days, it'll be processed into one of the most expensive marble slabs in the world.
00:26:51 Just one slab can cost over $10,000.
00:26:55 So how is Calicutta mined from mountains?
00:26:59 And what makes it so expensive?
00:27:02 Marble has been used for centuries, by artists and designers.
00:27:09 But Calicutta marble isn't just any kind of marble.
00:27:13 A square foot of some Calicutta can cost over $400,
00:27:17 more than four times the price of high-end Carrara marble,
00:27:21 which is mined in the same mountains.
00:27:23 Its warm, ivory-white background and thick gold or gray veins
00:27:27 sets Calicutta apart from other marbles.
00:27:30 But the key to Calicutta's price is its rarity.
00:27:34 It's found only in the Appuin Mountains of Carrara, Italy.
00:27:38 Marble has been mined here for over 2,000 years.
00:27:43 Extracting Calicutta marble from the mountains requires decades of experience.
00:27:48 Enrico has been a miner for 40 years.
00:27:52 He learned from his father, who worked at the same quarry.
00:27:56 It's important that miners have a trained eye and are precise.
00:28:10 They need to work around the mountain's defects to avoid the risk of the marble breaking.
00:28:15 These flaws affect where the miners can extract,
00:28:18 how much they can extract, and eventually, how much they can sell.
00:28:23 To extract the marble, we look for signs in the mountain,
00:28:29 in the bench, in the front.
00:28:31 A defect, a type of stain, a finishing,
00:28:37 these are all things that are part of the mine.
00:28:41 Despite Enrico's care and attention, he doesn't always get the result he wants.
00:28:47 As we saw earlier, when you flip the marble,
00:28:50 you can see a flaw that you expected,
00:28:54 but there could be a flaw that you didn't see.
00:28:57 So when you flip the bench, that could be the flaw.
00:29:01 But before they can detach the block, they have to drill and saw.
00:29:06 In the first stage of extraction, miners use drills to make strategic holes in the mountain.
00:29:13 They then run diamond-brade cords through these holes, cutting the marble into a block.
00:29:18 The machinery is kept wet to protect the marble
00:29:21 as chainsaws help detach the block from the mountain.
00:29:24 An average block is 12 cubic meters and can weigh 36 metric tons.
00:29:30 It's then carefully loaded into a truck, which brings it to a processing facility.
00:29:35 Here, the Calacatta marble blocks are sliced into slabs.
00:29:41 At this stage, processors can't afford to make a mistake
00:29:44 and risk ruining the rare marble delivered to them.
00:29:47 They mount over 100 very thin blades onto a wet saw, and the cutting begins.
00:29:53 The saw cuts slabs as thin as 2 centimeters.
00:29:58 Then they're prepared for shaping and polishing.
00:30:01 The slabs are first sanded and pretty smooth.
00:30:05 Then they're prepared for resination,
00:30:07 or the application of resin to fill any cracks or holes in the slab.
00:30:11 It's also used to attach broken pieces, like the ones that cracked at the quarry.
00:30:18 And with marble as rare as Calacatta,
00:30:29 one mistake can have a big impact on the quality and final price of the slab.
00:30:35 The most important stage is actually the whole important stage.
00:30:39 If the first stage wasn't carried out correctly,
00:30:44 the various stages are not carried out correctly.
00:30:48 So we have to start from the first stage and do it correctly.
00:30:52 The slab must be homogeneous,
00:30:55 sanded on its entire surface,
00:30:57 on the width of the slab,
00:31:00 and also on the various four corners.
00:31:04 After Sergio checks that the resin was applied evenly,
00:31:07 he moves it under UV light to dry.
00:31:10 These steps ensure that the slab has no flaws.
00:31:14 Then the Calacatta slab reaches its final stage.
00:31:31 It's honed and polished until it almost sparkles,
00:31:34 becoming, as Sergio says, "shiny to the eye."
00:31:38 It's now ready to be sent to the buyer.
00:31:41 Calacatta is extracted and processed on a per-order basis.
00:31:46 Producers consult the customer every step of the way.
00:31:50 This way, the Calacatta is perfectly customized to the client's needs,
00:31:54 because once it's fully processed, there's no going back.
00:31:59 Even with these risks and high costs,
00:32:02 customers still want Calacatta.
00:32:05 Our customers prefer Calacatta because it's a luxury,
00:32:10 it's a high-end product, it's timeless, and it's classical.
00:32:14 It fits very well with any kind of furniture.
00:32:17 White marbles like Calacatta are more desirable
00:32:20 because they have fewer flaws than darker marbles,
00:32:23 so they require less maintenance and repairs.
00:32:26 Calacatta is in even higher demand than other white marbles like Carrara.
00:32:30 The veins look crisper, less faded.
00:32:33 There are generally fewer veins in Calacatta,
00:32:36 making it easier to incorporate in exterior and interior design.
00:32:40 And it has a softer contrast than other high-end marbles, like Statuario,
00:32:45 which has a milky background, darker gray veining, and fewer changes in color.
00:32:50 This is a typical use of Calacatta.
00:32:53 It is made, in this case, to make kitchen countertop,
00:32:56 and you can see the typical Calacatta vein.
00:32:59 But serving Calacatta is even more expensive.
00:33:03 Calacatta gold, referring to the vein color, is especially hard to find.
00:33:09 While standard Calacatta can cost over $10,000,
00:33:13 a Calacatta gold slab can reach more than $29,000.
00:33:17 And while specific pricing is considered an industry secret,
00:33:22 Memmo says selling isn't an issue.
00:33:25 In the last 40 years, demand for Calacatta has actually increased.
00:33:30 And even during times of crisis, people have had a big desire for this type of material.
00:33:36 But this growing demand isn't welcomed by everyone, especially Carrara locals.
00:33:42 Sawing extraction techniques have led to slurry and waste
00:33:45 being carried to nearby environments through runoff water.
00:33:49 This has impacted local groundwater and the people who need it.
00:33:53 And environmentalists warn the over-exploitation of the mountains will only make things worse.
00:33:59 But that hasn't shaken demand for Calacatta, or marble in general.
00:34:04 The global marble market is estimated to grow to $68.5 billion by 2027.
00:34:11 So Calacatta will likely remain one of the world's priciest natural resources.
00:34:18 High-quality black opal can cost over $10,000 per carat,
00:34:23 making it one of the world's most expensive gemstones.
00:34:26 But mining black opal isn't easy.
00:34:29 After investing tens of thousands of dollars, a miner might not find a single gem.
00:34:35 So what makes black opal so hard to find?
00:34:39 And why is it so expensive?
00:34:45 Black opal is one of the most enchanting stones in the world,
00:34:49 sought after for its seemingly infinite display of colors.
00:34:53 Compared to common opal, which is usually one color,
00:34:56 black opal exhibits many different colors, contrasted by a dark body tone.
00:35:01 It's simply the most stunning gemstone on the planet.
00:35:04 It's just remarkably beautiful.
00:35:06 You can put the thing away for a week, pick it out and look at it,
00:35:09 and you can still see things inside it that you've never ever seen before.
00:35:13 Opal is found in several parts of the world, including Ethiopia, Brazil and Mexico.
00:35:18 But over 90% of the world's opal comes from Australia.
00:35:22 And a lot of the black opal is found here at Lightning Ridge.
00:35:26 It's located on the edge of the outback, with a population of just over 2,000 people.
00:35:32 Miners have been searching for opal here for over 100 years.
00:35:37 But even for experts, finding black opal isn't easy.
00:35:41 If you were to start mining tomorrow, and once you learn mining skills,
00:35:45 and I've been mining for 40 years, it would be an equal chance.
00:35:48 Just because there's nothing really that can tell you,
00:35:52 oh, there is opal in that piece of ground, or there's not opal in that piece of ground.
00:35:56 Miners start by drilling a vertical shaft in an area that they think contains opal.
00:36:02 Then they must clear out an underground room large enough to start digging at the rock.
00:36:08 The basic idea of mining is basically extract the opal clay out from the ground,
00:36:13 put it onto a truck, or take the truck to a puddling site in town and check if there's opal in that.
00:36:19 The equipment needed to mine and the cost to register your claim can be extremely expensive.
00:36:24 Really, if you wanted to rock up here and be serious,
00:36:28 you'd probably need $150,000 to $100,000 in your pocket to have a go.
00:36:32 But buying the equipment doesn't guarantee that miners will find black opal.
00:36:37 Some people will go, "Oh, there's definitely money there because next door they got $200,000
00:36:42 and there was a bit of colour drilled up here, it's got to have come over."
00:36:45 And there's a whole epic story of why there should be opal there.
00:36:48 And you go and dig there and it's not.
00:36:50 Miners search for areas in the rock with trace amounts of opal.
00:36:54 They follow these spots, called knobbies, hoping to find more opal deeper in the rock.
00:36:59 You'll keep going in a straight line until the trace runs out,
00:37:03 and then come back where there was trace in the wall, go left and right,
00:37:06 and then if that stops, then you come back and do it again,
00:37:09 and you can come back and do it again.
00:37:11 So you've always got that in the back of your head, you know,
00:37:13 "When do I leave? How long do I stay? Have I stayed too long?
00:37:16 I'm wasting time, I'm wasting money for my next patch."
00:37:19 There's a knobby there.
00:37:22 When you're in a really good pocket, see how these knobbies are sitting close like that together?
00:37:30 They can be like a cluster, like a bunch of grapes that are all sitting around each other
00:37:34 and they've all got colour.
00:37:36 Hear that?
00:37:38 See that sound? It's like glass.
00:37:42 See, get the big one out.
00:37:47 There we go.
00:37:49 Yep.
00:37:52 Doesn't have any value.
00:37:57 Common black opal.
00:38:03 Opal is formed when silica-rich groundwater hardens in rock over millions of years.
00:38:08 Large silica spheres within the stone diffract light, creating vibrant colours.
00:38:12 That play of colour makes each gem unique.
00:38:15 But for miners like Frederick, digging for black opal is a gamble.
00:38:21 The human factor is the biggest factor in finding opal.
00:38:25 If you've got a piggy bank of $10,000 or $20,000,
00:38:28 and then all of a sudden, in one month or two months,
00:38:30 you've blown all of that budget because you've had breakdowns
00:38:34 and you've had things occur that you didn't think of,
00:38:36 and then you go, "Well, I'm $20,000 down. What do I do here?"
00:38:40 I've been full-time mining for about over 45 years.
00:38:44 And quite often I say to myself, "How did you do it?
00:38:47 How did you survive that long making it your only job?"
00:38:50 I've done... I've done good. Not great.
00:38:54 I haven't been in the millions.
00:38:57 I haven't been up there in the fantasy pocket, you know?
00:39:01 Once rough opal is extracted and processed from the dirt,
00:39:07 it has to be cut and polished.
00:39:09 This is when the real value of the gem is determined.
00:39:12 A black opal can vary from starting at maybe $1,000 a carat
00:39:17 for the run of your mill,
00:39:20 and going right up to tens of thousands of dollars
00:39:24 for that really exquisite top quality.
00:39:27 The main stone is 241 carats.
00:39:31 A few thousand dollars a carat wouldn't be unreasonable.
00:39:35 - So a lot of money. - A lot of money.
00:39:38 The colour, brightness and patterns can all influence the price of black opal.
00:39:44 What you're looking for in the best quality opal
00:39:47 is a black stone with really bright colour
00:39:51 and as much red and other colours as possible.
00:39:55 So the most valuable black opal of all
00:39:58 is a really bright red stone on a very black base
00:40:03 and that just glows.
00:40:05 And you don't see them very often at all.
00:40:07 That lack of supply is a huge driver for the price of black opal.
00:40:12 We can barely keep up with the demand at the moment.
00:40:15 As soon as you find a gem-quality stone,
00:40:19 you know you've got a buyer for it.
00:40:22 Between 2005 and 2006,
00:40:25 approximately $30 million of opal was mined at Lightning Ridge.
00:40:29 And for fans of black opal, there's simply nothing else like it.
00:40:33 It's just a magic stone and when I came to Lightning Ridge,
00:40:38 just the beauty of it captivated me.
00:40:44 This floating mine is home to one of the most dangerous jobs in Indonesia.
00:40:49 Every day, Coko Tinggir risks his life
00:40:54 to harvest a precious source from below the ocean floor.
00:40:58 Tin.
00:41:00 He breathes through this narrow tube,
00:41:08 powered by a small diesel engine.
00:41:12 If there's oxygen in the tube,
00:41:14 the oxygen will run out if the engine is turned off.
00:41:16 That's what we're afraid of.
00:41:18 We just pray, we just pray for safety.
00:41:22 That's all.
00:41:24 This is the best-paying job in his village.
00:41:29 Indonesia is the world's biggest exporter of tin,
00:41:34 but most of it has been mined on land here,
00:41:36 on the islands of Bangka and Belitung.
00:41:39 But the tin deposits on land are almost gone,
00:41:43 and the process of excavating it has left behind these huge toxic lakes,
00:41:48 filled with poisonous minerals and acids.
00:41:52 Meanwhile, mining operations have moved offshore,
00:41:57 and unlicensed miners scavenge the seafloor for whatever gets left behind.
00:42:06 We followed Joko to see how he dives 65 feet underwater to collect tin,
00:42:12 and to find out what makes this such a risky business.
00:42:18 Joko was born and raised in Bangka.
00:42:27 He's a miner.
00:42:29 About 40% of islanders here now work in the mining industry.
00:42:48 And Joko knows it's the best way to feed his family.
00:42:55 [thunder rumbling]
00:43:01 The pontoons form what looks like a small floating village.
00:43:06 But each float has its own mobile crew.
00:43:10 Today, the water is choppy, and there are no life vests on board.
00:43:16 All he has are these goggles and a basic snorkeling cap.
00:43:23 [water splashing]
00:43:26 Even just reaching the seabed is a challenge.
00:43:30 [water bubbling]
00:43:39 Joko stays here for up to four hours a dive.
00:43:44 His oxygen supply comes from an air compressor aboard the pontoon.
00:43:50 [air compressor whirring]
00:43:52 Sometimes it can overheat and emit toxic gases into his air supply.
00:43:58 Joko pulls this blue pipe along with him on the seafloor.
00:44:18 First, he checks the sand for tin, but he has to be careful.
00:44:23 Tin weighs more than sand, so Joko says he can tell there's tin mixed in based on how heavy this handful feels.
00:44:36 He sends a sample up to the pontoon through this blue tube, so his crew can check for it too.
00:44:46 [water bubbling]
00:44:49 When his colleagues see it, they send a signal down to Joko by bending his oxygen tube, momentarily cutting off his air supply.
00:44:58 Once he knows he's found tin, his job is to keep holding the vacuum pipe firmly in that swath.
00:45:07 Above, the filtration begins.
00:45:15 His crew places these mats on the floor of the raft to separate the tin from the sand.
00:45:21 Since tin is heavier, it falls through these pores.
00:45:26 The sand gets dumped back into the ocean off the back of the pontoon.
00:45:31 Next, workers peel the mats off and bring them to these basins, where they wash out the tin that's trapped inside the pores.
00:45:42 [water bubbling]
00:45:44 Then, they drain the water and scoop the ore into bowls.
00:45:50 The whole process is loud, and it can be hard to keep tabs on Joko, who's still submerged about 60 feet beneath them.
00:46:01 Meanwhile, sucking action from the pipe is creating a crater in the seafloor.
00:46:10 The deeper the hole, the higher the walls of sand, and sometimes they crumble.
00:46:15 Joko says they've even buried his friend.
00:46:19 Joko worries for his life, too.
00:46:36 At the bottom of the sea, the pressure is more than two times what it is on the ground, and surfacing too fast has damaged Joko's hearing.
00:46:45 Since safety is so expensive, sometimes accidents happen.
00:46:52 Between 2017 and 2020, an Indonesian NGO recorded 40 deaths linked to tin mining in Indonesia, but many go unreported.
00:47:05 That's because these miners are unlicensed, which means what they're doing here is illegal.
00:47:11 Local police go after them, but miners say they are mostly looking for bribes.
00:47:18 90% of the country's tin mining territory is controlled by PT Timah, a state-owned company.
00:47:26 The government also grants licenses to small independent crews, who work on pontoons.
00:47:34 Getting those permits, though, means having a modern vacuum system that attaches to the seabed on its own,
00:47:40 and doesn't require miners like Joko to dive to the bottom of the sea.
00:47:45 But pontoons like that cost six times more than what Joko works on.
00:47:52 Tin mining in Bangka began in the 17th century.
00:48:02 Hundreds of years of digging has created moon-like craters on this once tropical landscape.
00:48:08 The exposed rocks contain sulfides that react with air and water, and link acids into Bangka's waterways.
00:48:26 Massive toxic lakes like these are everywhere.
00:48:31 Now, 16,000 tons of tin are left on land, but PT Timah estimates that about 265,000 tons are still in the ocean.
00:48:43 So miners have moved to the sea.
00:48:52 But offshore mining is killing fish in these waters.
00:48:56 A local NGO found that mining at sea has damaged about 13,000 acres of reef around the island.
00:49:04 Locals say that eight years ago, they could fish within a four-mile radius of the island.
00:49:10 Now they have to travel at least 17 miles to catch enough fish to make a living.
00:49:17 PT Timah did not respond to our requests for comment.
00:49:22 The four men work on the pontoon for 11 hours, taking just a short break for lunch.
00:49:30 At the end of the day, they divide the tin among themselves.
00:49:38 Joko takes the most because his job is the riskiest.
00:49:44 But he still makes only $13 a day.
00:49:48 That's why he can't afford the protective gear most deep-sea divers use,
00:49:54 like a pressurized helmet that costs around $2,000.
00:49:58 He sells his tin on the black market to middlemen like Nasrin,
00:50:04 who buys it for 10% below the standard rate.
00:50:10 We don't have a permit. If there are sea divers, or if we want to sell our tin,
00:50:16 we buy it at a price that meets the standard.
00:50:20 In this mining area, there are many tilings from old ships.
00:50:26 So there's a lot of waste.
00:50:28 So Nasrin has to refine the tin.
00:50:36 A worker washes it again to get rid of any residual sand.
00:50:41 Now this is the tin Nasrin can actually sell.
00:50:46 Workers then heat these metal platforms over an open fire.
00:50:52 Then they pour the tin onto this blazing hot surface to evaporate any residual water.
00:51:01 When workers inhale these fumes, particles of tin can enter their lungs,
00:51:07 and over time, affect their breathing.
00:51:11 Once the tin is dried, workers gather it up into sacks.
00:51:16 And then it's sold to smelters who extract the metal from its ore.
00:51:21 Tin is used in everything. Phones, food cans, cosmetics, paints, and even fuel.
00:51:30 But recently, Joko has been struggling to get a good price.
00:51:34 Because government regulations have made it harder to find buyers for his product, which is considered illegal.
00:51:41 [phone ringing]
00:51:42 [greetings]
00:51:49 Today, Joko says he makes barely enough to feed his wife and four children.
00:52:07 [cash register sound]
00:52:10 If the price of tin is going down, I think it's enough for us to save money.
00:52:17 We can eat adana, vegetables, fish, or even indomie.
00:52:26 It's all up to us.
00:52:28 If I don't work, I can't make money for my wife.
00:52:36 That's my only hope. If I don't work, I can't make money for my wife.
00:52:42 But he says there are enough to make him conquer any fear.
00:52:47 And his reason to get up the next day to do it all again.
00:52:52 I feel panic. I don't feel good.
00:52:57 I don't know how to do it.
00:52:59 But we have a responsibility for our children and wives.
00:53:02 We have a job.
00:53:05 We have to work.
00:53:06 We have to work until we run out of tin.
00:53:09 If we don't have tin, we can't continue to make money.
00:53:12 Rinki Kumari has been working at India's largest coal field since she was only eight years old.
00:53:22 I have to cut it with all my strength. You can see it.
00:53:29 It's technically illegal for her to be here.
00:53:33 But she risks her life every day to help feed her family.
00:53:36 She inhales toxic smoke.
00:53:40 And often burns her hands and feet.
00:53:45 But at 17, she still endures these brutal conditions with a smile.
00:53:58 I get very tired. I fall asleep after taking it.
00:54:02 We followed this young woman to see why people here keep working in such a risky business, generation after generation.
00:54:14 When my mom used to bring it, I would go to see her.
00:54:26 I would ask her how much she would bring.
00:54:28 She would say, "Let's go together."
00:54:30 So we would go with her.
00:54:32 We would help her.
00:54:34 Rinki and her mom stop and pray to Kali, the goddess of death, on their way to the Jhariya coal field.
00:54:46 Coal collectors built this shrine to honor people who died here.
00:54:53 Most of the official mines are operated by a subsidiary of government-owned Coal India, called Bharat Cooking Coal Limited, or BCCL.
00:55:06 People like Rinki dodge police to sneak in and scavenge.
00:55:15 The best time to avoid getting caught is from 4 to 10 in the morning.
00:55:19 Any later in the day, it gets feverishly hot.
00:55:27 Rinki has been injured a few times.
00:55:29 I was hit by a car.
00:55:32 I was hit by a car.
00:55:34 I was hit by a car.
00:55:36 I was hit by a car.
00:55:38 I was hit by a car.
00:55:40 I was hit by a car.
00:55:42 I was hit by a car.
00:55:44 I was hit by a car.
00:55:46 I was hit by a car.
00:55:48 I was hit by a car.
00:55:50 I was hit by a car.
00:55:52 I was hit by a car.
00:55:55 I was hit by a car.
00:55:56 I was hit by a car.
00:55:58 I was hit by a car.
00:56:00 I was hit by a car.
00:56:02 I was hit by a car.
00:56:04 I was hit by a car.
00:56:06 I was hit by a car.
00:56:08 I was hit by a car.
00:56:10 I was hit by a car.
00:56:12 I was hit by a car.
00:56:14 I was hit by a car.
00:56:16 I was hit by a car.
00:56:18 I was hit by a car.
00:56:20 I was hit by a car.
00:56:22 I was hit by a car.
00:56:24 I was hit by a car.
00:56:25 Rinki's friend Lakshmi is just 12 years old.
00:56:41 And she often collects the same amount of coal as an adult.
00:56:51 Rinki's basket weighs as much as she does.
00:56:53 Around 90 pounds.
00:56:55 Rinki walks about 8 miles a day.
00:57:11 Making several trips from the mine to her home to drop off the coal.
00:57:16 [Coal falling]
00:57:20 [Coal falling]
00:57:23 [Coal falling]
00:57:25 [Coal falling]
00:57:27 [Coal falling]
00:57:29 [Coal falling]
00:57:31 We have come from so far.
00:57:33 We have to go down so much.
00:57:35 We have to go down so much.
00:57:37 This is a very difficult path.
00:57:39 We can fall at any time.
00:57:41 [Coal falling]
00:57:43 [Coal falling]
00:57:45 [Coal falling]
00:57:46 [Coal falling]
00:57:48 [Coal falling]
00:57:50 [Coal falling]
00:57:52 [Coal falling]
00:57:54 [Coal falling]
00:57:56 [Coal falling]
00:57:58 [Coal falling]
00:58:00 [Coal falling]
00:58:02 [Coal falling]
00:58:04 [Coal falling]
00:58:06 When she gets home, she cooks the coal to make it usable as fuel.
00:58:12 It will take the whole night to cook the coal.
00:58:15 It will take 6-8 hours to cook the coal.
00:58:19 [Coal falling]
00:58:21 Rinki makes about Rs. 800-900 a week,
00:58:25 selling coal in the market to locals and restaurants.
00:58:28 [Coal falling]
00:58:30 In India, that's about $11,
00:58:33 roughly the cost of a pair of sneakers.
00:58:36 [Coal falling]
00:58:39 But the risks don't end when she leaves the mines.
00:58:42 [Coal falling]
00:58:44 [Coal falling]
00:58:46 And the same thing that helps Rinki support her family is also making them sick.
00:58:52 [Coal falling]
00:58:54 [Coal falling]
00:58:56 Coal deposits contaminate nearby rivers and streams,
00:58:59 especially during monsoon season.
00:59:01 [Coal falling]
00:59:04 [Speaking in foreign language]
00:59:11 [Coal falling]
00:59:13 [Coal falling]
00:59:15 [Speaking in foreign language]
00:59:17 [Coal falling]
00:59:19 [Coal falling]
00:59:21 [Music]
00:59:23 Nearby hospitals like this one are overflowing with patients who work in the mines.
00:59:27 [Coal falling]
00:59:30 Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sharma sees about 150 patients a day.
00:59:34 [Coal falling]
00:59:36 [Speaking in foreign language]
00:59:40 [Coal falling]
00:59:42 [Speaking in foreign language]
00:59:49 [Music]
00:59:51 Jharia's air quality is one of the worst in the world.
00:59:56 The coal underground has been burning for more than a hundred years.
01:00:00 Experts say it catches fire on its own when exposed to oxygen.
01:00:06 Flammable gases like methane and carbon monoxide seep through homes.
01:00:13 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:00:20 The floor in her house is always hot.
01:00:25 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:00:47 [Coal falling]
01:00:52 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:00:55 The mining company frequently explodes dynamite to expose the coal.
01:00:59 That's destabilized the entire neighborhood of Jharia,
01:01:03 creating cracks in the earth and swallowing up homes.
01:01:08 [Music]
01:01:11 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:01:20 [Coughing]
01:01:22 Rinki's house, made of concrete blocks, is slowly sinking.
01:01:25 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:01:31 [Coal falling]
01:01:34 Rinki's father remembers what life was like in Jharia when they moved here in 2005.
01:01:40 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:01:49 Now, the fires have spread so much that BCCL is moving thousands of families out of Jharia.
01:01:54 But the process has been slow.
01:01:57 Many locals say they don't want to move far away from the mines where they work.
01:02:02 Others are mistrustful of BCCL's motives.
01:02:05 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:02:13 Insider reached out to BCCL for comment, but did not hear back.
01:02:18 [Music]
01:02:20 Coal consumption is on the decline in many countries.
01:02:23 But not here.
01:02:25 India is the second largest consumer in the world.
01:02:29 Coal fuels 70% of the electricity grid.
01:02:33 And with a nationwide energy shortage unfolding, the government is doubling down.
01:02:38 It plans to reopen 100 old mines this year.
01:02:42 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:02:46 Rinki doesn't want to be here forever.
01:02:48 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:02:50 Four years ago, she got an opportunity that could change her life.
01:02:54 [Music]
01:02:57 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:03:04 She joined the Coalfield children classes run by an NGO.
01:03:08 About 100 kids are enrolled here.
01:03:11 [Music]
01:03:14 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:03:20 And she has big dreams.
01:03:23 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:03:35 [Children playing]
01:03:38 Even though she's still figuring out her next step, Rinki tries to find bright spots in the risky job she must keep doing for now.
01:03:46 [Speaking in foreign language]
01:03:55 [Music]
01:03:57 Weighing in at 26 tons, or about four African elephants worth of crystal and stone,
01:04:04 this massive geode costs almost $1 million.
01:04:08 Amethyst isn't particularly rare.
01:04:11 In fact, it's a type of quartz, one of the most common minerals on Earth.
01:04:16 But the geodes that miners laboriously excavate from the Astorres mine in Artigas, Uruguay, can still cost a pretty penny.
01:04:25 [Machinery]
01:04:27 So, how much does size matter?
01:04:31 And what else makes amethyst so expensive?
01:04:34 [Music]
01:04:38 Hundreds of years ago, amethyst was considered as valuable as rubies and sapphires.
01:04:44 But in the 1800s, massive deposits were discovered in South America, tanking its value.
01:04:51 Now, Uruguay is one of the most prolific producers of amethyst in the world.
01:04:56 And this mine is renowned for its massive geodes.
01:05:00 [Music]
01:05:01 [In Spanish]
01:05:03 The Astorres mine sits on a wide and ancient basaltic lava flow, ideal conditions for amethyst geodes.
01:05:27 But excavating amethyst is no easy feat.
01:05:31 The volcanic rock that surrounds it, known as basalt, is porous, allowing water to seep in.
01:05:38 Miners know how to use this feature to their advantage.
01:05:42 [In Spanish]
01:05:45 [In Spanish]
01:05:46 Miners set off controlled explosions to clear away rock and blast small fissures in undiscovered geodes.
01:06:06 [Music]
01:06:09 [In Spanish]
01:06:10 [In Spanish]
01:06:28 [In Spanish]
01:06:29 Miners like Renato Arocena start assessing the amethyst's value before it's even out of the ground.
01:06:55 [In Spanish]
01:06:56 As lava cools into rock, bubbles of volcanic gas form pockets.
01:07:11 In the right conditions, those pockets can turn into this.
01:07:15 [In Spanish]
01:07:18 [In Spanish]
01:07:19 Amethyst is quartz that has changed colour because of exposure to radioactive material.
01:07:32 Over millions of years, the quartz gradually absorbs the radiation that's naturally present in the rock that surrounds it.
01:07:41 This radiation agitates iron atoms in the quartz, which burn off the excess energy in the form of visible light.
01:07:48 That radioactivity is what makes amethyst purple.
01:07:52 Higher concentrations of iron result in deeper hues.
01:07:57 [In Spanish]
01:07:59 [In Spanish]
01:08:23 At Las Torres, miners extract small geodes and chunks of amethyst from an open-air mine.
01:08:29 [In Spanish]
01:08:31 But it's in the tunnels where the largest and most prized specimens lie.
01:08:46 [In Spanish]
01:08:48 [In Spanish]
01:08:49 And the stakes get higher when dealing with the giant geodes.
01:08:57 [In Spanish]
01:08:59 [In Spanish]
01:09:28 [In Spanish]
01:09:29 Iron rods work as guides that show the miners where and how to cut the rock around the geode.
01:09:54 [In Spanish]
01:09:57 [In Spanish]
01:10:23 The raw material is washed and sorted by size and quality.
01:10:27 [In Spanish]
01:10:52 Artisans like Ricardo Martinez take the raw materials and transform them.
01:10:57 [In Spanish]
01:10:59 [In Spanish]
01:11:22 He uses various sized diamond discs to bind each stone into his desired size and shape.
01:11:29 [In Spanish]
01:11:39 Small flaws can be fixed at this stage.
01:11:47 [In Spanish]
01:11:50 [In Spanish]
01:11:51 But major breaks will significantly reduce the value of larger pieces.
01:12:03 [In Spanish]
01:12:12 Carlos Anchis owns Les Verges Minerals, one of Artigas' largest amethyst exporters and home of its largest amethysts,
01:12:20 like this 26-ton colossus.
01:12:23 [In Spanish]
01:12:40 It took eight months to process it and move it from the mine to where it stands now.
01:12:45 Finding a buyer for a behemoth like this is no easy feat.
01:12:50 Sometimes they can stand around for years.
01:12:53 [In Spanish]
01:12:55 [In Spanish]
01:12:56 So, producers will often work with international retailers that basically act as brokers between them and potential customers.
01:13:21 Most of Les Verges Minerals' sales consist of smaller pieces.
01:13:25 But small doesn't necessarily mean cheap.
01:13:28 [In Spanish]
01:13:49 Different combinations of minerals and naturally occurring shapes can also boost the price.
01:13:54 [In Spanish]
01:13:57 [In Spanish]
01:13:59 [In Spanish]
01:14:01 [In Spanish]
01:14:02 [In Spanish]
01:14:04 [In Spanish]
01:14:06 [In Spanish]
01:14:07 [In Spanish]
01:14:08 [In Spanish]
01:14:09 [In Spanish]
01:14:32 [In Spanish]
01:14:33 [In Spanish]
01:14:57 While the demand for diamonds plummeted during the pandemic, the opposite was true for near gemstones.
01:15:03 Crystals like amethyst have long been associated with metaphysical healing.
01:15:08 And while there's no scientific evidence to back those claims, the industry still grew to be worth more than $1 billion in 2020.
01:15:16 That demand is good news for Les Verges and Las Torres, where there is plenty of supply left to be discovered.
01:15:25 [In Spanish]
01:15:27 Miners discovered this 8,000-pound crystal in Arkansas.
01:15:42 It was donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which has one of the largest mineral collections in the world.
01:15:51 We knew we had something very special.
01:15:55 But donations like this don't happen often anymore.
01:15:57 That's because crystals are getting expensive.
01:16:00 Really expensive.
01:16:02 Even millions of dollars for a single specimen.
01:16:05 Things that were $50,000 to $100,000 back in the '90s could easily be half a million to a million and a half today.
01:16:12 But because crystals formed millions of years ago, there's a limited amount of them.
01:16:17 What we dig up is what we got.
01:16:20 Take the scarcity, growing demand, and that Instagram aesthetic.
01:16:24 They're extraordinary because the uncut ones are just beautiful in their rawness.
01:16:28 And now you have private collectors scooping up crystals at skyrocketing prices.
01:16:33 Our business has been going up at a fever pitch pace over the last two decades.
01:16:39 It's all making it harder for museums to get a hold of and preserve specimens like this.
01:16:45 So how did the industry get so big? And how did the Smithsonian land such a rare piece?
01:16:50 To find out, we followed the journey of this giant Arkansas quartz.
01:16:54 Whenever you find a big one, you only find just a little bit at a time.
01:17:02 That's Josh, a fifth-generation miner.
01:17:05 He and his grandpa found the Arkansas quartz in the summer of 2016.
01:17:10 Most crystals have two sides, forming a pocket in the middle.
01:17:14 And the back of it's just flat.
01:17:15 So when you're following that ledge, they're growing toward each other.
01:17:20 Their points are basically intertwined.
01:17:23 So when we're digging them, we didn't know what it was until we brought it up and sprayed it off.
01:17:27 First, they removed only one side of the crystal.
01:17:30 When we pulled it out of the ground, there was so much mud on it, it didn't even look like a crystal.
01:17:36 My grandpa was disappointed. He said, "It's just blank."
01:17:39 And what we mean by blank is it's just quartz, there are no points on it.
01:17:44 And that was kind of discouraging, so we put it on the trip and drove it up here to the cleaning shed and started spraying it off.
01:17:49 And we were just like, "Oh my God, this is phenomenal."
01:17:54 You know, it was way more than what we expected it to be.
01:17:57 And we actually left the other rock still sitting in the ground and went back about an hour later and got that piece.
01:18:05 Altogether, it took them about two months to unearth the giant crystal.
01:18:10 That's the biggest one I've found, yeah.
01:18:13 The Arkansas quartz weighs as much as this forklift.
01:18:16 The Colemans knew they had to eventually sell a crystal of this size.
01:18:19 And the best place to do that is Tucson.
01:18:22 Tucson is the world's largest gym show.
01:18:24 Every year, 4,000 vendors descend upon the city.
01:18:28 It's estimated that altogether, $5 billion worth of crystals are sold at the show in just three weeks.
01:18:35 So we actually took both pieces to Tucson.
01:18:38 The smaller piece, which is the top piece, never came out of the box.
01:18:42 The bigger piece, which is the bottom one, we actually had to dismantle our whole store place in Tucson just to be able to get it in there.
01:18:50 That's where the donors found it.
01:18:52 I'm always looking for stuff for the Smithsonian, but probably most of what I find, they go, "We already have that."
01:18:58 I knew right away from the size of the crystal, it looked like about eight feet by ten feet.
01:19:04 You can get a bunch of mineral crystals and glue them together, but to pull up a solid piece like a wall like this, that is rare.
01:19:10 So real estate developers Michael and Patricia called up the Smithsonian.
01:19:14 They said, "We would love it, but it's not something that we can afford."
01:19:18 Because it's a government-funded museum, the Smithsonian can't use federal money to acquire specimens.
01:19:24 So the world's largest national history museum relies heavily on donors like the Burns to expand its collection.
01:19:32 At that time, it was something that we couldn't afford either.
01:19:34 I started negotiations with a miner. It took me a few months.
01:19:38 The Burns wouldn't tell us how much they spent on the crystal, but Josh told us they had crystals this size appraised for $4 million and $7 million in the past.
01:19:47 What we got out of it was basically that we're keeping an American treasure for the American public.
01:19:55 But moving it a thousand miles wasn't an easy task.
01:19:59 They're fragile. With that particular piece, half of it was big-pointed and the other half was little bitty points.
01:20:04 And those little bitty points, they'll come off real easy.
01:20:07 They suspended the pieces with straps and forklifts and then moved them into two wooden boxes.
01:20:12 We have big 55-gallon drum trash bags full of just wadded-up newspaper, and it does a great job.
01:20:20 Josh and his family drove those boxes halfway across the country to D.C.
01:20:25 Although we bring a lot of specimens into our collection every year, almost never do they come in a big truck like this.
01:20:37 So this is a special occasion for us.
01:20:40 That's Jeff. He runs the gem and mineral collection at the museum.
01:20:44 He makes sure the pieces are in good shape before the museum takes ownership.
01:20:48 Yeah, we're just looking for anything that's kind of gotten loosened up.
01:20:52 I mean, everything looks like it's been packed well. Look at this. Wow, isn't that nice?
01:20:56 We have at least a couple different generations of growth.
01:20:58 It's kind of fun to explore it because you just, you see different things.
01:21:01 I don't see anything that's been damaged.
01:21:04 And this is Charles. He's in charge of moving the crystals.
01:21:07 He's been doing it here since 1995.
01:21:10 So this crate contains the first of the two Arkansas quartz.
01:21:14 This one is the larger of the two, approximately weighed up 5,000 pounds.
01:21:20 And there's a smaller crate that has the second specimen and it weighs 3,000 pounds.
01:21:24 We're going to unload and install it in the museum today.
01:21:27 Just ready to get it moved. Get the job done.
01:21:30 It takes a team of five riggers, steel plates, and lots of straps to safely move the crystal.
01:21:36 How much work does it take to coordinate all these people?
01:21:39 I don't want to talk about that. Safety is an important factor when you're moving stuff like this.
01:21:46 I've been doing this a while, so I am perspiring a little bit, but I'm good.
01:21:51 The display is only 400 feet away from the loading dock, but it took seven hours.
01:21:56 Finally, by midnight, the quartz crystal is secured in place.
01:22:00 We're thrilled that it's in there. Not everybody gets in the Smithsonian, you know.
01:22:06 So for it to go in there is kind of like a confirmation to me that we're the best.
01:22:15 But in the gem and mineral department, getting donations like this is becoming rarer
01:22:19 because of the growing and lucrative business of crystals.
01:22:23 The fascination with crystals has been there since antiquity.
01:22:27 Ancient Egyptians buried their dead with quartz and used crystal in jewelry and even eyeshadow.
01:22:32 In China, jade was believed to grant immortality and was built into burial sites for the royal families during the Han Dynasty.
01:22:41 Greeks take it up and had medicinal purposes or could ward off the evil eye or things like that.
01:22:46 It's that spiritual connection to crystals that made them perfect for the self-care world.
01:22:51 And it sort of transitioned in the mid-90s with both the metaphysical boom that started in the 80s
01:22:58 and a new group of collectors who were coming on the scene, and they were strictly looking at them from their beauty factor.
01:23:04 It checks so many boxes in that way, right? It can be a spiritual practice. It can also be for wellness.
01:23:10 And then you can capture that in media, right? In Instagram and Goop.
01:23:15 Katy Perry, Kylie Jenner, and Gwyneth Paltrow have praised crystals for years.
01:23:20 Adele swears by hers for helping with performance anxiety.
01:23:23 Today, the industry's worth over a billion dollars.
01:23:27 Mines like the Coleman's have become a tourist attraction.
01:23:30 So you can come out, dig for your own crystals.
01:23:34 We've got a zip line that goes over the crystal mine, and we do tours of the mine.
01:23:39 And over the past two years, those have just took off.
01:23:42 And big beauty brands have gotten into the game.
01:23:45 Interior design, people buy them and sell them around their houses.
01:23:49 In New York City, crystal healings for chakra realignment sell for $250 for a single hour and a half session.
01:23:58 Crystal healing operates on the vibrations of your body.
01:24:01 And, you know, taking any out-of-balance vibrations and raising them to be at their natural state.
01:24:09 Different crystals supposedly offer different types of healing.
01:24:12 But there's no scientific evidence to support crystals' healing power.
01:24:16 A 1997 study from a Goldsmiths, University of London, professor found that crystals' power came from nothing more than placebo.
01:24:23 Still, that hasn't stopped consumers from scooping them up.
01:24:27 It's just now it can be commodified, put in social media, Instagram.
01:24:31 All this popularity has made the competition for crystals incredibly steep.
01:24:36 Science people are still into it. You have the metaphysical interest that's driving it.
01:24:41 And you have the art crowd. Through that growth, you have appreciation and value.
01:24:46 Daniel said he's seen crystals sell for 100 times what they did 20 or 30 years ago.
01:24:52 Many of the mineral specimens that you see on, in these cases, on display, sell on the market these days for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars for a single specimen.
01:25:02 And so the art world and the mineral world have actually sort of become a very similar kind of an economy.
01:25:08 It's difficult for publicly funded museums to get access to great material.
01:25:16 And that's because the private collectors today are so fiercely competitive and have such access to money that they're buying all, or not all, but a majority of the great objects that are out there.
01:25:29 I have no problem with people collecting these things, but the difference is once they're here, they're forever in the public domain, which means that we can put them on an exhibit for people to see them.
01:25:40 Plus, it provides access to scientists, so it's not just a private collector looking at it in his room or basement or her basement or whatever.
01:25:47 And what makes this Arkansas quartz so worth preserving is its rarity, both in size and existence, because there are only a limited number of crystals in the earth.
01:25:57 The crystals formed probably 300 million years ago.
01:26:01 Deep in the earth's crust. And they need the perfect conditions.
01:26:05 Crystals can form either from magma cooling down slowly in watery, silica-rich environments or under intense temperatures and pressure.
01:26:13 But all crystals need an open space to grow.
01:26:16 And then as they move up through erosion and through outcropping on the earth's surface, we're able to then find them.
01:26:27 Deep in the earth right now, probably 10 kilometers down that we'll never see in our lifetimes or probably in another 50 lifetimes, there are minerals forming, but they'll never be available to us.
01:26:40 But none of that seems to be slowing down the industry.
01:26:43 I think the demand is just going to continue to increase.
01:26:53 Ertugrul is carving out the final details of this MirÅŸam pipe.
01:26:57 And when he's done, a pipe like this can cost over $300.
01:27:03 It's made of MirÅŸam, a mineral rock often found in underground mines in Turkey that reach 137 meters deep.
01:27:12 The most intricate pipes can take up to two months to complete.
01:27:17 Those can go for over $7,000.
01:27:21 But MirÅŸam is fragile, which means Ertugrul can lose all his work at the last minute.
01:27:27 So what sets MirÅŸam pipes apart from the rest? And why are they so expensive?
01:27:43 Turkish people have been making MirÅŸam pipes since the early 1600s.
01:27:48 MirÅŸam, also known as sepulite, is a clay-like mineral.
01:27:52 It's lightweight, portable, and can be used for many different purposes.
01:27:57 It's a very good mineral.
01:28:00 It's a very good mineral for the environment.
01:28:03 It's a very good mineral for the environment.
01:28:07 MirÅŸam, also known as sepulite, is a clay-like mineral. It's lightweight, porous, and heat-resistant, making it ideal for pipe smoking.
01:28:17 Its porousness allows it to absorb tar and nicotine, reducing how much is inhaled, which some pipe smokers prefer.
01:28:25 MirÅŸam is found all over the world, but the most commercially important MirÅŸam is mines near EskiÅŸehir in Turkey.
01:28:35 It's locally referred to as "white gold" for its economic and cultural value.
01:28:39 To make MirÅŸam pipes, artisans first seek the highest quality MirÅŸam, known as the "right grade."
01:28:47 The higher the grade, the less prone the MirÅŸam is to cracking, so they're willing to pay more than double the price of the lower "sandy" grade.
01:28:55 The right grade of MirÅŸam is rare and difficult to obtain.
01:29:01 Mirşam is located in underground quarries, and here in Gözlübel, miners have found high-grade Mirşam.
01:29:07 Emre now carves pipes, but he got his start in the industry as a miner.
01:29:13 He's taking us 44 meters below ground, where he'll chisel at surrounding rocks to find suitable MirÅŸam.
01:29:28 Miners make educated guesses as to where to start, typically near deposits they've already mined.
01:29:34 The work is physically demanding, and even the strongest laborers can take an hour to remove just one stone.
01:29:42 But that's only if they find it.
01:29:55 The goal is to find large MirÅŸam rocks that are at least the size of a fist.
01:29:59 This stone can sell for at least $38.
01:30:14 Emre says larger MirÅŸam has higher heat resistance, up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:30:22 The bigger the MirÅŸam stone, the more elaborate and eventually, the more expensive the pipe will be.
01:30:28 But artisans like Emre can only make as many pipes as the MirÅŸam supply allows.
01:30:34 Though Emre can spend up to $2,200 at a time,
01:30:43 he's not able to afford the cost of a single stone.
01:30:48 Though Emre can spend up to $2,200 at a time on raw MirÅŸam,
01:30:52 that's still not enough to meet the demand for the finished pipes.
01:30:56 Ertuğrul Çaver is one of the few master pipe carvers in all of Turkey.
01:31:10 He's been making MirÅŸam pipes for over 50 years.
01:31:15 Aside from the cost of the MirÅŸam itself, the final price of these pipes comes down to skill and craftsmanship.
01:31:22 To start making the pipe, ErtuÄŸrul removes any dirt from the stone
01:31:27 and cuts around fault lines that may later cause it to break.
01:31:31 This sometimes means lopping off three quarters of the MirÅŸam stone.
01:31:36 He then carves out the rough shape of the pipe.
01:31:43 He air dries the pipe to strengthen it, then drills in guide holes for the mouth and body.
01:31:48 ErtuÄŸrul refines the pipe again with four different sandpapers to remove any flaws and to ensure a smooth surface.
01:31:57 Simpler pipes like these can sell for over $100,
01:32:03 but complex pipes like this Ottoman Sultan head require further handiwork which can triple the price.
01:32:11 ErtuÄŸrul doesn't plan the design for his pieces.
01:32:14 He works from memory and feel, so each of his pipes is a unique work of art.
01:32:19 After hand carving every minor detail, ErtuÄŸrul starts shaping the stem.
01:32:26 The stem's materials can vary.
01:32:29 Ebonite is used for more expensive pipes, while acrylic is used for more affordable ones.
01:32:34 The stem is polished, then fit into the mouth of the pipe.
01:32:39 Next, ErtuÄŸrul dips the pipes in beeswax, which adds a sheen and further hardens the MirÅŸam, prolonging its durability.
01:32:47 But even when worked by skilled hands like ErtuÄŸrul's, the MirÅŸam is liable to break unexpectedly at any point in the process.
01:32:58 The risk of this happening, especially with complex pipes that can take up to two months to complete,
01:33:03 means sometimes ErtuÄŸrul's work is all for nothing.
01:33:07 But when he can finish a pipe, it can be sold for top dollar.
01:33:14 MirÅŸam pipes at this price point are typically low-quality, but the quality of the pipes is very high.
01:33:28 The quality of the pipes is very high, but the quality of the pipes is very high.
01:33:36 We offer the best quality and most affordable pipes.
01:33:47 Most of the pipes you see here are from my collection, the oldest ones.
01:33:55 Most of them are from the 1800s and 1700s, from the age of 200-250.
01:34:05 Today, MirÅŸam pipes are in high demand by collectors and smokers alike.
01:34:10 But that hasn't always been the case.
01:34:13 Around the turn of the millennium, a rise in anti-smoking laws and the availability of alternative materials praised the market for MirÅŸam pipes.
01:34:21 Things took a turn in 2011 with the rise of tourism in Turkey after the Arab Spring.
01:34:26 As tourism continued to increase, Emre saw MirÅŸam pipes regain popularity
01:34:33 and the global pipe industry is set to grow even further at a rate of 4.5% by 2031.
01:34:39 Yet as demand for MirÅŸam pipes increases, Erdalur fears the profession can't keep up.
01:34:45 Some are gone, some are starting.
01:34:49 And they're probably living in the golden age, when the raw material is expensive.
01:34:54 In the future, our hope is to become a successful artist.
01:35:01 If this continues...
01:35:04 We were looking, but now we have a lot of talented people who are better than our masters.
01:35:17 This small blue gemstone is one of the rarest in the world.
01:35:22 And because of the unique way it forms in the earth,
01:35:26 Benito White sparkles even brighter than diamonds, making it incredibly expensive.
01:35:31 A single carat can cost over $12,000.
01:35:35 But you can only really find this gem in one place.
01:35:40 So why is Benito White so hard to find?
01:35:44 And what makes it so expensive?
01:35:47 How is Benito White different from other gemstones?
01:35:55 It has a brighter vitreous luster.
01:35:58 That means it looks like glass, but brighter, shinier.
01:36:02 It also has a high dispersion, or fire, meaning it can sparkle more than other gemstones.
01:36:09 So, here we are on the top of the mine.
01:36:19 This is a private mine.
01:36:23 It's part of Benito White Mining Company, owned by John and Dave Schreiner.
01:36:26 The company is stationed here because facet-grade Benito White can be found in only one location,
01:36:32 San Benito County, California.
01:36:34 That's why it's the state's gem.
01:36:37 There have been microscopic deposits found in Japan,
01:36:42 but so far this is the only place where you can find it where it's actually big enough to hold in your hand and to put in jewelry.
01:36:51 Not knowing how rare it was, miners used to extract Benito White just like any other gem,
01:36:56 with explosions and blunt force.
01:36:59 And now, the supply is finite.
01:37:02 Gemstones like Benito White are generally scattered,
01:37:05 but sometimes there's a vein underground where concentrated amounts of the gem collect.
01:37:11 Benito White formed when an oceanic plate and a crustal plate came together.
01:37:17 One plate slid under the other, and water got trapped in the fault line.
01:37:21 Magma then intruded into the fault line and mixed with the trapped water.
01:37:25 As cracks and veins formed in the surrounding rock, the superheated mixture flowed into them.
01:37:31 Here, the rare element barium bound with titanium, silica, and other elements.
01:37:37 Together, they formed Benito White.
01:37:40 But finding the gem is a bit of a guessing game.
01:37:45 And if John and Dave guess incorrectly, the cost is high.
01:37:48 To help them find where Benito White might be, they look for this.
01:37:53 The white part of the rock is nitrolite, and the dark part, glucious.
01:37:57 These are two minerals that surround and protect Benito White.
01:38:00 If they see the white, it may mean they've found a Benito White vein.
01:38:04 And when the vein breaks out onto the surface, it's referred to as an outcrop.
01:38:11 A big vein or a big outcrop of Benito White was right here, and it had fallen against the mountain.
01:38:16 That was dug out, dynamited, all the material off the top of it's gone.
01:38:20 That doesn't mean there's not stones here. They're all over the place.
01:38:24 Yet a Benito White vein hasn't been found here since the late 1990s.
01:38:29 So today, John and Dave are mining in a location they think has potential.
01:38:34 They have to narrow down where they think the vein is,
01:38:39 because excavating and drilling is expensive, and they can't afford to be wrong.
01:38:43 Core drilling alone will cost them $200,000.
01:38:48 Funding is always an issue. Mining is not a cheap venture.
01:38:53 Normally that's what's holding us back, just having the funds to actually move forward.
01:38:58 So as they work up to that funding, they're also working to confirm exactly where the vein is.
01:39:05 After they load all the material they excavated, they can begin processing it to see if there's a concentration of Benito White.
01:39:12 That starts with sorting.
01:39:15 This is the first stage of the wash plant.
01:39:19 Right over here is where the material gets dumped in originally.
01:39:23 So everything above inch and a half gets stopped right there.
01:39:28 After this, John can locate larger specimens that need to be acid etched,
01:39:34 and the acid is used to carefully break off the Benito White from its surroundings.
01:39:37 They also screen for everything under an eighth inch,
01:39:40 and the sorted material goes up a long conveyor belt to be washed in the trammel.
01:39:45 The trammel shakes and cleans the rocks before they hit the blacklight room.
01:39:49 Benito White is fluorescent, so the Shriners use UV light to identify the gem without damaging it.
01:39:55 After, he screens and washes all the fluorescent pieces and collects the best ones.
01:40:03 There's one of them.
01:40:04 That is a Benito White.
01:40:09 Even though John found some good pieces of Benito White, today's excavation was just okay.
01:40:17 This is good. We've done better.
01:40:22 Still, he and Dave remain hopeful.
01:40:25 They're confident that they're getting really close to locating that vein.
01:40:30 Finding another Benito White vein would be outstanding.
01:40:33 It would change a lot of things.
01:40:35 That is the direction we're going in and that we want to go in.
01:40:40 It's financially hindering, but we are getting there.
01:40:45 But even if John and Dave find a vein, it doesn't mean all the Benito White they excavate can be sold for top dollar.
01:40:53 Benito White is a naturally small gem, like diamonds,
01:40:58 so most of the rocks they find can't be faceted into a clean, clear gem.
01:41:02 On average, you lose about 80% of the stone during the cutting process.
01:41:05 It also depends on how clean you want the stone to be.
01:41:08 But the remarkable and highly valuable properties of Benito White make all this work worth it.
01:41:14 What's also very unique about Benito White is that it is doubly refractive.
01:41:23 So when the light enters the stone, it splits into two rays.
01:41:27 This creates a doubling effect, giving Benito White a complex internal appearance.
01:41:32 Yet on the surface, it looks like light bounces off the gem on all sides.
01:41:37 The depth these qualities create is enriched by the stone's color, which shows in the price.
01:41:43 In a colored gemstone is color.
01:41:46 Color, color, color is the first and last and most important factor affecting value in a colored gemstone.
01:41:54 And depth also holds the color, like a deeper stone can have a deeper color, and that makes it more valuable.
01:42:00 The darker the color, the more valuable the stone typically is.
01:42:04 It is amazing.
01:42:06 Anytime you look at something like this and you think, "How in the world did this ever happen?"
01:42:13 That I could be holding something in my hand that represents an amazing geological formation and event.
01:42:23 And what had to happen for all of this to occur.
01:42:28 [Music]