Where is jade mined in Russia? Shooting, gangs with shovels and millionaires. Causes and consequences of jade fever in the Sayan Mountains How jade is mined

Nephrites of the Republic of Buryatia

The name "jade" comes from the Greek "nephros", which means "kidney", due to the widespread belief that this gem relieves the owner of kidney disease. In Asian countries, jade is called differently and has different meanings attributed to it. The Japanese love black jade, Europeans love green, and Mongols love white. Depending on the shades, white gems are divided into three varieties. The most prized is white, opaque and pure jade, similar to the legendary lotus. It seems to say to its owner: “Let your heart and thoughts be pure, like lotus petals, rooted in the mud, but clean from the bottom dirt.” . The second is a grayish-white, highly translucent stone with a wet, oily sheen. And the third is ivory jade.

It was believed that white jade, with its soft shine and deep and calm tone, was able to drive away violent passions and instill peace and tranquility in the soul. The Mongols said: “If you are uncontrollably carried somewhere, if resentment and anger have crept into your heart, do not let these passions flare up. Take the white and slippery Tsagaan Khash (jade) in your palms, squeeze it tighter, and it will calm you down.” Jade was revered as a stone of tranquility and personified the main eastern commandment:“Don’t worry and don’t rush: there are many days in the year.”

Old Arats claim that white jade also has supernatural magical properties. Thin jade plates are capable of producing a clear and lingering ringing. In China and Mongolia, these skillfully carved white plates were hung from a headdress or belt and emitted a melodious ringing when walked.

Hundreds of treatises, books and articles have been written about the medicinal abilities of jade - they are truly incalculable. In China, it was considered a panacea for all diseases and was worn for prevention and complete protection of the body. In the Middle Ages, jade was ground into powder and taken orally as a medicine. Tooth and heart pain, bloating, arrhythmia, pressure changes, depression, stress, nervous diseases, problems with blood circulation and bone marrow - everything is subject to jade; An amulet made from this gem on the stomach facilitates childbirth for pregnant women and cures ulcers and stomach cancer. For those suffering from stones in the kidneys and bladder or other diseases of these organs, various methods of exposure to nephritis are recommended - from direct massage to a belt or massage pillow.

Jade has been popular since ancient times. Archaeologists, including in Buryatia, find ritual axes and other products made from this unusually durable stone. The art of artistic jade carving originated in China, which for several millennia remained the world center for highly artistic jade processing. Polished jade retains its shine for thousands of years.

Jade is the lapidary stone of the Ruler of Heaven and the emperors of China, symbolizing cosmic energy, perfection, strength, power, incorruptibility, immortality. In the Chinese tradition, it personifies a number of virtues: moral purity, justice, sincerity, courage, harmony, devotion and benevolence. The imperial jade seal symbolized that the power of the emperor was given by Heaven. The many shades of jade, from white to green, blue and red - almost black, made it possible to distinguish religious objects by color as well as by shape. The most famous symbols are PI on the gates of Heaven (a green-blue disk with a round hole) and JING - the symbol of the Earth (a yellow cone inside a rectangle). Despite the fact that jade was a symbol of the Sun and "yang", its serene and calm color was also associated with the soft beauty of the female body and even with sexual relations (jade game). The hardness of jade is up to the 18th century. mining jade was not difficult and it served as the material for most Chinese products made of carved stone - it gave rise to the belief in sympathetic magic that crushed jade prolongs life, and that a jade amulet preserves the body from decomposition after death, hence the large number of jade crafts that were found in Chinese burials . Chinese alchemists believed that jade had a perfect form and in this sense replaced gold as a symbol of absolute purity.

The Chinese deify jade, calling it “the stone of Earth and Heaven,” and attribute to it 5 virtues corresponding to the spiritual qualities of a person: kindness, moderation and justice, courage, purity and knowledge. In Europe, it symbolizes honesty, integrity, decency, courage, loyalty, wisdom and justice. It is not without reason that medicinal properties are attributed to it. Due to its high heat capacity, jade placed on the body acts as a pain-relieving heating pad.

Until the mid-19th century, jade was imported to Russia from China. In Russia, the first finds of jade were recorded by Grigory Permikin. From 1851, for ten years, he explored the beds of the Kitoi, Onot, Urik, Bela and Oka rivers. The first jade boulders were discovered in the upper reaches of Onot and Kitoy - 8 tons of boulder jade were transported to the Peterhof lapidary factory. Although jade boulders were mined there before by special military expeditions from China.

In 1896, the first primary deposit of jade was discovered along the Khara-Zhalga stream in the Eastern Sayan. At the same time, on the banks of the river. Onon, a huge boulder was discovered, nicknamed the “general’s stone,” from which they decided to make a sarcophagus for Alexander III, but it was rejected by the widow because the color was too dark (Cipiriani, 2001).

Historical facts about jade

Jade was the first material for the manufacture of labor and hunting tools among the ancient peoples of Central Asia, Europe, America, New Zealand and Australia. At the dawn of culture, it, along with flint, was a weapon in man’s struggle for life. Its strength and toughness withstood the most severe impacts, leaving only small dents. Its soft shine represents mercy, its hardness represents moderation and justice, its translucency represents honesty, its purity represents wisdom, and its changeability represents courage. An old Chinese proverb says: “Gold has a price, but jade is priceless” . Confucius spoke about a good person: "His morals are as pure as jade" (Zdorik, Feldman, 1998). One day a boulder of Siberian jade was placed under a steam hammer. When the hammer hit, the anvil crumbled into pieces, but the boulder remained unharmed. In the pile buildings of Swiss lakes, in coastal camps near Lake Baikal, in the ancient buildings of the famous Mycenae in Greece, among the Maori tribe on the islands of New Zealand, knives, arrowheads, hammers and axes were made from jade. They were passed down from generation to generation and did not wear out when used for centuries. According to Miklouho-Maclay, even the Papuans of New Guinea prepared hammers and axes from jade, although no stone was found in the deposits of the earth's interior. Queen Victoria of England had an excellent jade scepter, sent as a gift by the Chinese Emperor.

In 1826, N. Shchukin, a teacher at the Irkutsk gymnasium, first discovered jade boulders on the banks of the Sayan mountain rivers Onot and Biboya. But more accurate data about jade were reported by G.M. Permikin in 1851 after he discovered large blocks of jade along the Onotu River. On November 15, Permikin delivered to Irkutsk 1200 kilograms of jade in twelve boulders, 400 kilograms in eleven, and 800 kilograms a little later in one solid boulder. And although among the delivered gems there was no milky gray, which is highly valued by the Chinese, there were no bright green stones, however, in the thin plates, lampshades and caps, the wonderful effect of the juicy green color was amazing, and in the passing light its beautiful pattern appeared perfectly veins, small folds, convolutions and spots that make up a special beauty.

In 1872, at the Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition, there were two tables made by the Peterhof Lapidary Factory; on the top board of one of them lay scattered bunches of grapes with jade leaves and dark amethyst berries. World demand for jade, according to experts, can reach thousands of tons per year. So far, Canada and Australia are the leaders in the production and supply of jade to the foreign market - up to 300 tons annually. Russia, without a doubt, could compete with them.

The “jade potential” of our country in Buryatia alone makes it possible to extract 150-200 tons per year. Despite the fact that the cost of mining this stone is relatively low - about $2 per kilogram. And the selling price on the foreign market can reach 10-16 dollars per kilogram, depending on the variety, quality and other characteristics. Finished jade jewelry is much more expensive. For example, the price of a one-meter high jade vase, made to order, is quite comparable to the price of a brand new car of a prestigious model.

AREAS OF DISTRIBUTION AND PROSPECTS FOR MINING JADE RESERVES IN BURYATIA

Reserves and resources of jade raw materials in the territory of Buryatia amount, according to various estimates, from 90% to 99% of all-Russian reserves. In Russia, 16 deposits have been explored and assessed, of which 13 are located in Buryatia. The deposits are concentrated in the Muisky, Bauntovsky, Okinsky, Tunkinsky and Zakamensky districts.

The systematic study of jade in Buryatia began only in 1963 by geologists of the East Sayan party of the Irkutsk expedition “Baikalquartz Gems”. Until 1978, this expedition mined green jade at the Ulan-Khodinskoye and Ospinskoye deposits in the Eastern Sayan Mountains, then at the Gorlykgolskoye and Zun-Ospinskoye deposits. in the Okinsky district, as well as the Khamarkhudinsky deposit in the upper reaches of the Dzhida in the Zakamensky district.

A real sensation was the discovery of deposits of light-colored apocarbonate jade on Vitim - Buromsky in 1978, Golyubinsky in 1979 and Kavoktinsky in 1983. Mining began there in the process of geological exploration of the deposits. Previously, deposits of more familiar green jade were known in these areas, for example Paramskoye.

The explored jade reserves of Buryatia amount to 24 thousand tons, and the predicted resources are 100-110 thousand tons. Buryat jade is characterized by increased strength and the ability to take on shine after polishing. It is traditionally believed that the best green jade in the world is mined at the Ospinskoye deposit in the Eastern Sayan Mountains, and white jade at Kavoktinskoye in Vitim.

In Russia, especially in the post-war years, the work of the All-Union Industrial Association “Soyuzkvartsamotsvety” identified new deposits in the Eastern and Western Sayans, the Dzhida region of Buryatia, in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Polar Urals. Most jade deposits are of the metasomatic type and are confined to the hypermafic (dunite-harzburgite) formation. More recently, in Buryatia, in the Vitim region, a new genetic type of deposits was discovered in Russia, in which jade was formed by alteration of sedimentary carbonate rock, very rich in magnesium. In such rocks there is absolutely no iron, and therefore white jade is formed here, which is composed of iron-free amphibole-tremolite. It was from this kind of jade that the rabbit was made for the earrings of the wife of the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty, which were found by archaeologists during the opening of the grave.

In the North of Buryatia, in the border areas with the Trans-Baikal Territory, deposits of the most valuable, white, blue and red river jade are concentrated. In percentage terms, this is 100% of what is available in Russia according to the latest geological exploration data. Now, it is probably clear why jade is so valuable in Buryatia and why there is so much fuss around it, which could soon turn into a war.

It all started not by chance, on this river with the funny name Bambuika, a small tributary of the Vitim. For a long time this Evenki, harsh land was unknown. Only rare hunters disturbed her peace from time to time. During the construction of the BAM, as a result of surface exploration, jade was discovered. However, there was no time for him then; the construction of the century was going on. And only in the 80s was the jade of Buryatia given worthy attention. Then, during the years of perestroika, few people in our country understood the market value of the stone; the interest was purely scientific, on the part of geologists and historians. In the early 1990s, in the Muisky district, under the Mezentsev administration, the first licenses for stone mining began to be issued. The first samples were exported to Ulan-Ude, where they were sold is unknown; at that time there were no large Chinese entrepreneurs. At the end of the decade, the first major players, Irkutsk entrepreneurs associated with certain government agencies and mining institutes, appeared on the market. Entrepreneurs are beginning to establish connections with Chinese businessmen who were previously involved in Buryat timber and the import of cheap consumer goods from the Middle Kingdom. Naturally, for the Chinese such cooperation was more than profitable, because who else, if not they, knows the true value of jade. The potential was understood and appreciated.

About 99% of Russian balance reserves of jade are located in Buryatia. The deposits are concentrated in five districts of the republic: Muisky, Bauntovsky, Okinsky, Tunkinsky and Zakamensky. In all regions, except the first two, green varieties of jade were identified. In the Republic of Buryatia, the territorial balance of reserves as of 01/01/2008 took into account 13 jade deposits with balance reserves according to category. C1 - 7442.1 tons of raw jade and 2468 tons of graded jade, according to cat. C2, respectively, 16918.7 tons and 5408.0 tons. Off-balance reserves of raw jade are 71.5 tons, graded jade 57.3 tons. For the Ospinskoye, Gorlykgolskoye and Khargantinskoye deposits, the state reserve contains: raw jade - 9982 tons, semi-precious jade - 2748 t, jewelry - 48 t cat. C1+C.

In the Muisky and Bauntovsky districts, 3 deposits are known - Golyubinskoye, Buromskoye and Kavoktinskoye, the most scarce white jade at present, all of them are in the distributed fund. As of January 1, 2008, the balance reserves at the Buromskoye field have been completely depleted. In 2007, production was carried out at the Gorlykgolskoye, Golyubinskoye, Kavoktinskoye, Ospinskoye, Khaitinskoye, Khargantinskoye, and Ulan-Khodinskoye fields. A total of 909.1 tons of raw jade and 271.7 tons of graded jade were mined.

The “jade potential” of our country in Buryatia alone makes it possible to extract 150-200 tons per year. Despite the fact that the cost of mining this stone is relatively low - about 2 dollars per kilogram. And the selling price on the foreign market can reach 10-16 dollars per kilogram, depending on the variety, quality and other characteristics. Finished jade jewelry is much more expensive. For example, the price of a one-meter high jade vase, made to order, is quite comparable to the price of a brand new car of a prestigious model.

Jade is very popular in both the domestic and foreign markets. The stone-cutting industry produces vases, stands, boxes, rings, rings, bracelets, beads, and jewelry inserts. Jade is also used as a decorative and ornamental material for inlaying mosaic panels and interior decoration.

Jade is appreciated I am for a deep and even color tone, translucency and the ability to accept mirror polishing. Depending on the severity of these qualities, the price of raw jade varies from 30 to 3,000 rubles per kilogram, although unique examples of jewelry quality can cost even more. Jade is not traded on exchanges, so its price rises slowly but steadily.

Currently, in the Okinsky district, jade mining is carried out by 3 organizations registered in the Irkutsk region: Baikalquartz Samotsvety OJSC, Sosnovgeo OJSC and SE Sibirgeologiya LLC. In the Bauntovsky district there are the Ulan-Ude local religious organization, the Buddhist community “Dharma” and the Evenki clan community “Dylacha”. Golyube LLC and Burom LLC are registered in Muisky, and PGP Kaskad LLC is registered in Zakamensky. The total level of raw materials extracted in 2007 was 909 tons of raw jade and 272 tons of graded jade. The share of the jade industry in the mining industry of Buryatia in terms of production volume and number of employees is 2.2%. Basically, the extracted raw materials in unprocessed form are exported outside Buryatia for next to nothing.

It is more difficult to take into account the poaching of plunderers. Recently, large shipments of smuggled jade have been stopped at checkpoints three times. Such cases have been recorded not only in Buryatia, but also in Primorye.

So far, jade from Canada, as well as Australia and Taiwan occupies the main share in the world market. Moreover, at international fairs the cost of this raw material is 10-100 times lower than the cost of jade from Buryatia. But the republic has so far practically not taken advantage of this advantage (“Globus Magazine: Geology and Business”).

STATE CONTROL OVER JADE MINING

The government of Buryatia decided to restore order in the jade industry. But it doesn’t yet know where it’s going. The desire of the republican authorities to restore order in jade mining in Buryatia and, as a result, receive adequate economic dividends is very commendable. Plans to include the “jade” issue as a separate section in the Strategy for the Development of the Mineral Resources Complex of Buryatia for the period until 2017 also, of course, arouse respect. But one gets the feeling that the authorities have difficulty imagining the real state of affairs with jade mining.

All this time, the Buryat government is officially “sleeping,” although some officials are already trying to influence the state of things by introducing their people and their companies into the small but promising jade market. At first, jade was calmly transported from Mui and Baunt by plane to Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk. We are talking about valuable and high-grade jade, the cost of which reaches $3,000 per kilogram, so a couple of suitcases could cost a fortune. During the time of the then leadership of both the Mukhino airport and the small airports of Taksimo and Bagdarin, there was nothing to be afraid of, there was not even a banal visual inspection of things on domestic airlines. As time passed, the rumor that there was first-class jade in Buryatia spread to the underground Chinese jade market. Representatives of criminal structures poured into the republic, conflicts began with the previous buyers, who, by the way, had already become quite rich. Our crime also did not sleep, in Ulan-Ude, in Taksimo, in Kyakhta, Naushki... However, the “redistribution” did not last long, a couple of armed skirmishes, conversations on concepts and the boys dispersed peacefully.

Until recently, namely before the arrival of new leadership in the republic, the situation was stable, characteristic of a self-regulating criminal market. The increase in the number of the Chinese diaspora is noteworthy, and most importantly, the qualitative change. There were more rich people, young representatives appeared in the state structures of Buryatia, who officially or unofficially helped solve the problems of foreigners, brought together sellers and buyers of green gold.

And everything would be fine, only the newcomers simply began to “greyhound,” as Buryat market participants put it. Sensing a complete sales monopoly, the Chinese resellers shamelessly began dumping prices; within a year the price was “dropped” almost in half. Despite the fact that jade has only increased in price on the Chinese market. The sellers were not happy with this situation. And here Alexander Evgenievich enters the arena with his project of “driving” the jade market under the wing of the state. In essence, our officials’ calls for decriminalization of the industry are an attempt at direct sales to China under the supervision of the state, and, accordingly, maintaining prices at the same level. Well, here we can add an advantage in competition with Irkutsk residents. In any case, it is a matter of money, more money and even more potential money. Again, I have no doubt that the Government will be able to do this; business is so specific. The source itself is localized and protecting it from “wild” divers will not be difficult. The myth that there will be powerful resistance there was invented to make the picture colorful. One detachment of well-armed riot police and the prosecutor bear recognize the power of Nagovitsyn.

The question is different, about licensed miners. At the last press conference, President of Buryatia V.V. Nagovitsyn spoke about the need to review and update licenses in accordance with current legislation, although he did not specify which part. Is it possible? I don’t know, but the case smacks of legal proceedings, and accordingly, a war is planned, but a civilized war, in courtrooms. Some miners are willing to have even half the criminal income than practically nothing from the real value. In Buryatia, only 12 organizations are engaged in jade mining, of which 6 operate in the Muisky and Bauntovsky districts. But this is exclusively official data. In fact, in the north of Buryatia, complete anarchy reigns with jade, and it is noticeably criminalized (Kislov, 2009).

As inspections by the competent authorities show, the majority of firms that have received licenses for jade mining, using various schemes, evade paying taxes. In fact, only one company pays taxes to the budget of the Muisky and Bauntovsky districts. The rest are all, they say, unprofitable.

But a comparison of figures from different sources shows that, for example, the companies Burom LLC and Cardinal LLC, showing zero balances, at the same time exported tons of jade through Transbaikal customs in recent years. On the shadow market, a kilogram of jade costs 1 thousand dollars. That is, the shadow turnover is at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. The same "Burom" has been engaged in jade since 1999. Moreover, since 2006 the company has not submitted reports on mining operations at all.

The Government of Buryatia, without a doubt, knows these facts. Therefore, it tried to make the mining and sale of jade more civilized. But the first steps to restore order were taken, according to observers, extremely unsuccessfully.

CONCEPT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JADE INDUSTRY OF THE REPUBLIC
BURYATIA

The Republic of Buryatia has a convenient economic and geographical location in the center of the Asian part of Russia, on the most important routes of national and global importance. The Republic of Buryatia occupies one of the leading positions among

subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of availability of mineral resources. More than 700 deposits of various minerals have been explored on its territory, more than 600 of which are included in the state balance of Russia and the territorial balance of the Republic of Buryatia.

The reserves and resources of jade raw materials available on the territory of the Republic of Buryatia, which account for more than 90% of the all-Russian total, allow us to actively develop our own jewelry production, which creates significant added value to the mined stone-colored raw materials, with all the positive economic and social consequences for the republic.

The main goal of the Concept is to bring the jade industry to a qualitatively new level in terms of the competitiveness of its products and increase the contribution of the stone processing industry to the socio-economic development of the Republic of Buryatia.

This Concept is the basis for the development of the jewelry and stone processing industry of the Republic of Buryatia in new directions, in accordance with international standards, and is the basis of state policy in the field of mining and processing of jade in the Republic of Buryatia for 2009-2011.

ASSESSMENT OF THE CONDITION AND MAIN TRENDS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE JADE INDUSTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BURYATIA

The Republic of Buryatia contains more than 90% of the Russian balance reserves of jade. The deposits are concentrated in five districts of the republic: Muisky, Bauntovsky, Okinsky, Tunkinsky and Zakamensky.

In all regions except the first two, green varieties of jade have been identified. Balance reserves cat. C1+C2 green jade in the distributed fund of the Ospinsky (veins 7 and 32), Gorlykgolsky (veins 10 and 37), Ulan-Khodinsky (veins 1, 4, 21, 25) deposits of the Okinsky district and the Khargantinsky deposit of the Zakamensky district are: jade- raw materials - 7278.4 tons, ornamental materials - 3098.6 tons and jewelry - 89.4 tons.

The state reserve in the Republic of Buryatia contains 9 deposits with total balance reserves according to category. C1+C2 raw jade 11531.9 tons, graded jade - 3208.4 tons, including ornamental - 3098.6 tons and jewelry - 109.8 tons, off-balance sheet: raw jade - 71.5 tons, graded - 57 .3 tons, including ornamental goods - 17.2 tons and jewelry - 40.1 tons.

In the Muisky and Bauntovsky districts, 3 deposits are known - Golyubinskoye and Kavoktinskoye - of the most scarce white jade at present, all of them are in the distributed fund: raw jade - 4987.5 tons, semi-precious jade - 1058.2 tons, jewelry - 274.8 tons , cat. C1+C2.

Jade mining is carried out by 7 organizations in the Okinsky, Bauntovsky, Muisky and Zakamensky regions of the republic. In the Okinsky district there are 3 organizations registered in the Irkutsk region - OJSC Baikalquartzsamotsvety, OJSC Sosnovgeo and LLC SE Sibirgeologiya.

To Bauntovsk The Ulan-Ude local religious organization - the Buddhist community "Dharma" (hereinafter referred to as U-U MRO BO "Dharma") and the Evenk family-clan community "Dylacha" (hereinafter referred to as SREO "Dylacha") - operate in this region. Golyube LLC and Burom LLC are registered in the Muisky district. In the Zakamensky district, the enterprise PTP "Kaskad" LLC is registered.

The total production level in 2007 was 909 tons of raw jade and 272 tons of graded jade (the production level in 2006 was 750.7 tons of raw jade and 229.2 tons of graded jade).

The share of the jade industry in the mining industry of the republic in terms of production volume and number of employees is 2.2%.

The average salary, with the exception of the SREO “Dylacha”, is significantly lower than that established by the Program of Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Buryatia for 2008-2010 and for the period until 2017. Some organizations plan by 2017 the average salary to be 15 thousand rubles, with the established Program indicators being 60 thousand rubles.

The entire volume of extracted raw materials in unprocessed form is exported outside the republic, mainly for sale to China. Almost all subsoil users have violations of licensing conditions for subsoil use.

DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF THE JADE INDUSTRY

Jade was known to primitive people, who began using it to make weapons and tools, and then as religious objects and decorations. The art of artistic stone carving originated in China, which for several millennia remained the world center for highly artistic jade processing.

Until the mid-19th century, jade was imported to Russia from China. The Peterhof lapidary factory purchased dark green jade at a price of one thousand to two thousand rubles per pood.

The first Russian jade deposit was discovered by Grigory Martemyanovich Permikin, who was sent from St. Petersburg by the State Department in 1851. For 10 years, G. Permikin, following the stories of Soyot hunters, explored the beds of the Kitoi, Onot, Urik, Belaya and Oka rivers and exported about 8 tons of boulder jade for the Peterhof lapidary factory.

Products from the Peterhof factory made from Sayan jade were demonstrated at the World Exhibitions in London and Paris in 1862 and 1867. In 1896, the first primary vein of jade was discovered in the Eastern Sayan along the Khara-Zhalga stream. Search and assessment work continued until the 90s of the last century. Moreover, since 1972, all exploration and mining work has been carried out by the state enterprise “Baikalquartz Samotsvety”.

Currently, jade is distributed in more than 20 countries around the world, but its largest and most industrially significant deposits are known in Russia, China, Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

In Russia, 16 deposits have currently been explored and assessed, of which 13 are located in Buryatia. The total balance reserves of raw jade in categories C1+C2 amount to 27,172 tons, including graded jade - 9,193 tons, of which more than 90% is located in the Republic of Buryatia. All the largest deposits are located in Buryatia: Ospinskoye (7536.7 tons, Okinsky district), Gorlykgolskoye (6542.4 tons, Okinsky district), Golyubinskoye (3903.4 tons, Muisky district), Khamarkhudinskoye (2582 tons, Zakamensky district) and Kavoktinskoye (1084.1 tons, Bauntovsky district). In terms of quality characteristics, the best deposits are Kavoktinskoye, Golyubinskoye and Ospinskoye.

When exporting jade, companies declare the price of raw materials from 6 to 10 US dollars per kg. The actual selling price to buyers in Russia ranges from 60 to 1000 US dollars per kg, depending on the quality. Ready-made jewelry is much more expensive. The price of jade in products on the Chinese market currently reaches 200 thousand US dollars per kg and above.

The world jade market, according to experts, is about 1000 tons per year. The leaders in production and supplies to the foreign market are Canada and the USA - up to 300 tons annually. Buryatia, and therefore Russia, having actually already reached this level of stone production, must take corresponding positions in the world market.

In 2007, 272 tons of high-quality jade were mined in the republic, including 93 tons of Cavoktinsky jewelry and 179 tons of ornamental jade. Taking into account the 50% yield of finished products from the total volume of mined stone and the minimum price level for products - 10 thousand US dollars per 1 kg of white jade and 1 thousand US dollars per 1 kg of products from green jade - the potential sales volume of commercial products amounts to 16 billion rubles per year. Without increasing the volume of stone extraction, commodity revenue will increase by 2 times within every 2 years.

PROBLEMS RELATED TO MINING AND EXPORT OF JADE IN BURYATIA

Jade could become our oil. But so far he has become only an object of criminal profit. The topic of jade and the missing income from its extraction in Buryatia became the subject of discussion at a meeting of subsoil users with the government of Buryatia. The discussion clearly showed that business and government have different views on the future of the jade industry. 90 percent of all jade in Russia is mined in Buryatia. Of the 16 explored deposits, 13 are located in our country. Jade is officially mined by eight enterprises, all of which operate exclusively for export. Last year, through their joint efforts, according to official data, licenses were issued abroad for the export of 500 tons of jade for a total amount of 3.5 million rubles. The amount is simply shocking. According to information from the Ministry of Natural Resources of Buryatia presented at the event, in China for this amount you can buy no more than one hundred kilograms of processed high-quality jade. Where does the multi-billion dollar difference go? The question is as interesting as it is dangerous.

This situation has rightly haunted the Deputy Chairman of the Government of Buryatia, Alexander Chepik, for a long time. It turns out that Buryatia is giving away raw materials for next to nothing, on which the Chinese are making exorbitant added value. In Buryatia, at the end of last year, a state program for the development of deep processing of jade on site appeared. And the topic of jade itself is slowly and surely gaining publicity and economic meaning at the state level. Theoretically, jade can replace the oil we lack in Buryatia.

Alexander Chepik, addressing the Dylacha company, which has produced 741 tons of jade since 1994, shared arithmetic at the meeting. The average price of jade sold for export from the Dylacha enterprise was about $60 per kilogram. But, according to officially confirmed data from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the price range of the same high-quality jade in China varies from 500 to 3-5 thousand dollars per kilogram. If you "accidentally" multiplied $500 by 741 tons of high-quality jade, you would get $350 million. This is not a reproach. This is a call to understand how important the issue of deep processing of jade is here in Buryatia. Moreover, this enterprise has been exporting raw materials for so many years. Actually, this was the leitmotif of the entire communication between the authorities and the “jades”. Companies were more pessimistic.

"THE CHINESE WILL NOT LET US IN"

Businessmen gave a lecture on the current jade moment. Jade is an oriental stone; for Russia and Europe it is not an object of worship, and jewelry made from it is not as in demand as in China. Therefore, deep stone processing is entirely concentrated in India and China. And small European consumption is also satisfied by enterprises from Southeast Asia. Our entrepreneurs do not see prospects in processing, even if it is carried out, they do not understand where to sell the goods. The Chinese, they say, still won’t let us into their market.

In addition, unfavorable macroeconomic forecasts were announced. And they are as pessimistic about jade as they are about everything else. The Olympics in China have passed, so the large, unprecedented order for this material can be considered exhausted. The decline in exports is planned for the next two years at 15 percent annually. Moreover, the figures were given by Chinese buyers themselves. To this it is worth adding the global crisis, when “people buy meat and bread with great pleasure, but not jewelry.” But the main obstacle is still undertaking
Observers consider the inability to work with this mineral in Buryatia.

Highly artistic work with jade is done only in India and China. All the latest technologies, all jade processing are also located in Southeast Asia. It is pointless to make consumer goods and souvenirs in Buryatia, because in terms of their artistic value they will not represent anything, and the added value will be not much higher than raw jade. It will take at least 10 years to create your own art school.

One got the feeling that the industrialists were talking to the government official in different languages. And the simple export of tons of jade at a penny price is the inevitability of the historical process and geography. However, the Deputy Prime Minister has already become known as an extremely persistent and assertive person, which was confirmed once again. In his opinion, we have already chosen a line of movement towards deep processing of jade within Buryatia and must move towards it.

— What if we bring teachers and masters from China? - Mr. Chepik asked the businessmen, and, lo and behold! - a point of contact was found. In response, businessmen said that “nothing is impossible, but real masters are expensive.”

The cost of the craftsmen apparently did not become a problem for the deputy chairman against the backdrop of millions of losses from the export of raw materials at cheap prices. Also, perhaps, he had in mind that Chinese craftsmen would provide the opportunity for products to enter the Asian market.

The discussion about future personnel for jade processing was much more constructive. The government of Buryatia offered companies to recruit students under a contract to travel to China to study. At the same time, it is ready to compensate part of the costs of education. Apparently, according to the same “compensation” scheme, recruits will be arranged for local companies of Chinese jewelry creators. At the end of the discussion of the jade future of Buryatia, businessmen have already risked, albeit with reservations, but rashly declaring: “We support processing with both hands.” Alexander Chepik considered this to be diplomacy and did not believe it:

- Words alone are not enough. We are waiting for your suggestions - what equipment you are going to buy, what exhibitions to participate in, how we can help you.

At that point the parties parted, knowing full well that in the foreseeable future they could not escape each other. And it will apparently be necessary to process jade inside Buryatia.

The dissonance to all the plans and conversations on the future of jade was struck by the pleas of one of the businessmen about the crime situation around the jade business:

— For some reason, the criminal part is not reflected anywhere. There is barbaric theft going on. At the same time, the prosecutor's office and the police have a stack of letters that remain unclaimed. It turns out like this: the more you write, the more attention you then get, but from the wrong side. Wherever you turn: “This is not ours.” Today, the increase in production costs occurs not due to the purchase of equipment, but due to increased costs for the protection of production. There are armed attacks, why aren’t we talking about this today? Fighting each other, the groups controlling the jade business use the entire arsenal of criminal means of struggle, including setting cars on fire.

We have already sent documents to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office with a request to take control of the situation, because this is no longer possible.

At the Zabaikalsk border checkpoint in the Trans-Baikal Territory, an increase in smugglers exporting jade from the region was noted. The number of attempts to illegally export semi-precious stones from Russia, according to experts, has increased significantly this year. Recently, three large shipments of this mineral were detained in a row.

As the press service of the border department of the FSB of Russia for the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Republic of Buryatia reported, Chinese citizens tried to smuggle one of the jade shipments across the border; they hid 265 stones with a total weight of 1.5 tons in the ceiling openings, under the seats and in the luggage compartment of the bus. In another case, the mineral was found in the possession of a Chinese citizen who was carrying it on a train in fruit boxes. The cost of 223 kg of jade was estimated at 334 thousand rubles.

This year's largest shipment of jade - 1,791 kg - was seized from a Russian who was illegally transporting it to China for the purpose of sale. Another case of smuggling was recorded at Grodekovskaya customs in the Primorsky Territory, where the value of the seized 333 kg of jewelry jade was estimated at 313 thousand rubles.

For comparison: in 2008, border guards of Transbaikalia and Buryatia recorded only one attempt to illegally transport jade. Then, 4.8 kg of the mineral was seized at the Russian-Mongolian checkpoint Mondy.

All routes for the illegal export of jade from Russia lead to China. In the Celestial Empire, this mineral is one of the ancient national symbols. It is believed that a product made from this stone should be in every home to give its owners prosperity and longevity. The Chinese are willing to pay from $300 per kilogram of processed stone of various shades of green, and up to $10 thousand for especially valuable white jade.

In Russia, 13 out of 16 explored deposits of open-pit jade are located in Buryatia, which provides 90% of the total Russian production. Along with legal subsoil users, black miners and resellers flourish here. Illegal jade miners are divided into several groups. “Divers” have been extracting jade pellets since the days of mountain rivers. “Tramps” are looking for minerals in the taiga, just as free prospectors used to look for gold. The third group formed relatively recently. Representatives of this category enter licensed deposits on “contractual” terms and extract as much jade there as they can carry. The daily fee is 15-20 thousand rubles, and, of course, in cash. Denial of access to a deposit is fraught with various problems for the subsoil user. At best, the jade will simply be stolen from him without offering anything in return.

Chinese entrepreneurs are mainly involved in buying illegally mined minerals. But some Russian companies do not disdain this. Thus, in 2008, one of the companies exported about 70 tons of jade to China. At the same time, there was not a single piece of heavy equipment on its balance sheet, and its staff included three people. Another company has not submitted reports on the volume of mineral extraction for several years, continuing to supply jade abroad.

The other side of the jade problem is the underestimation of export prices by legal subsoil users. According to the Transbaikal Customs, the maximum cost of jade in 2008 was $7, and in 2009 - $8 per kilogram. The budget received over 43 million rubles in taxes. However, according to Vladimir Mathanov, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from Buryatia, “export prices for Buryat jade are underestimated by at least five times, and the amount of tax deductions to the budget can be an order of magnitude higher.” Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Buryatia Alexander Chepik agrees with him. He is also convinced that the republic must learn to retain the “exorbitant added value” that the Chinese earn from processing jade. The President of Buryatia, Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, even declared the need “to deal with jade once and for all in 2010.” The head of the republic emphasizes that legal subsoil users can count on state support, but “only if finished products are manufactured.”

The first attempt by the republican authorities to ensure pricing transparency by centralizing exports failed and caused a scandal. Subsoil users refused to hand over the mined jade to the Chinese trading house Shen-Shen, as recommended by the Republican Agency for the Development of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Innovative Technologies. And the press accused the authorities of “lobbying the interests of Chinese business” (Information Service “Number One”, Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, 05/14/2009 / IRA “Vostok-Teleinform”.

Nevertheless, Buryatia does not give up the dream of jade dollars (as money is called in the region by analogy with petrodollars). The authorities plan to create a corresponding holding company, in which 51% of the shares will belong to the state,
and 49% to investors. This initiative has already met with resistance from the owners of jade mining cooperatives, who claim that the planned changes will lead to the creation of corruption schemes and raider takeover of those working today (Zolotarev, “Number One”).

INTRODUCTION
The reserves and resources of jade raw materials available on the territory of the Republic of Buryatia, which account for more than 90% of the all-Russian total, allow us to actively develop our own jewelry production, which creates significant added value to the mined stone-colored raw materials, with all the positive economic and social consequences for the republic.

Jade is a mineral from the tremolite-actinolite isomorphic series of the amphibole group, a silicate of calcium, magnesium and iron. Conventionally, it is divided into tremolite-nephrite (lighter) and actinolite-nephrite (green shades) (Ed, Viard, 1997). Hardness 6.0-6.5 on the Mohs scale, density 3.0 g/cm3, silky, waxy luster. Other names for the mineral and its varieties: kidney stone, Canadian jade, dianite, yu, punamu, hash, jasper.

In 1896, the first primary deposit of jade was discovered along the Khaara-Zhalga stream in the Eastern Sayan. At the same time, on the banks of the river. On this day, a huge boulder was discovered, nicknamed the “general’s stone,” from which they decided to make the sarcophagus of Alexander III, but it was rejected by the widow because the color was too dark (Cipiriani, 2001).

Historical facts about jade

CHAPTER 1. JADE DEPOSITS IN THE REPUBLIC OF BURYATIA

1.1. AREAS OF DISTRIBUTION AND PROSPECTS FOR MINING JADE RESERVES IN BURYATIA

The systematic study of jade in Buryatia began only in 1963 by geologists of the East Sayan party of the Irkutsk expedition “Baikalquartz Gems”. Until 1978, this expedition mined green jade at the Ulan-Khodinsky and Ospinsky deposits in the Eastern Sayan Mountains, then at the Gorlykgolsky and Zun-Ospinsky deposits also in the Okinsky region, as well as the Khamarkhudinsky deposit in the upper reaches of the Dzhida in the Zakamensky region (see Fig. 5).

About 99% of Russian balance reserves of jade are located in Buryatia. The deposits are concentrated in five districts of the republic: Muisky, Bauntovsky, Okinsky, Tunkinsky and Zakamensky. In all regions, except the first two, green varieties of jade were identified. In the Republic of Buryatia, the territorial balance of reserves as of 01/01/2008 took into account 13 jade deposits with balance reserves according to category. C1 – 7442.1 tons of raw jade and 2468 tons of graded jade, according to category. C2, respectively, 16918.7 tons and 5408.0 tons. Off-balance reserves of raw jade are 71.5 tons, graded jade 57.3 tons. For the Ospinskoye, Gorlykgolskoye and Khargantinskoye deposits, the state reserve contains: raw jade - 9982 tons, semi-precious jade - 2748 t, jewelry – 48 t cat. C1+C.

The “jade potential” of our country in Buryatia alone makes it possible to extract 150-200 tons per year. Despite the fact that the cost of mining this stone is relatively low - about 2 dollars per kilogram. And the selling price on the foreign market can reach 10-16 dollars per kilogram, depending on the variety, quality and other characteristics. Finished jade jewelry is much more expensive. For example, the price of a one-meter high jade vase, made to order, is quite comparable to the price of a brand new car of a prestigious model (see Fig. 6).

The list of subsoil areas proposed for licensing in 2008 for jade includes:
1. Bortogolsky occurrence of jade, located in the south-eastern part of the Eastern Sayan, Okinsky district, forecast resources cat. P2 are estimated at 21.2 tons of high-quality jade (Protocol of the USSR State Reserves Committee, 1962)
2. Prospective area of the ore field of the Ospinskoye deposit (flanks of ore bodies) (Okinsky district). Forecast resources are estimated at 50 tons of high-quality jade.
3. Placers and deposits of the river. Tsipa and its tributaries (sections 1 and 2) in the Bauntovsky district. Prospective area is 4.5 sq. km. Inferred resources are estimated at 50 tons.
4. Aktragda-Amalat Square in the Bauntovsky district. Prospective area 4 sq. km. Inferred resources are estimated at 50 tons.
5. Placers and deposits of jade river. Bambuika and its tributaries in the Muisky district. Forecast resources are at least 50 tons. The length of the valleys is 70 km with an average width of 50 m.

Jade is valued for its deep and even color tone, translucency and ability to take a mirror polish. Depending on the severity of these qualities, the price of raw jade varies from 30 to 3,000 rubles per kilogram, although unique examples of jewelry quality can cost even more. Jade is not traded on exchanges, so its price rises slowly but steadily.

1.2. CONTROL BY THE STATE OVER JADE MINING

The government of Buryatia decided to restore order in the jade industry. But it doesn’t yet know where it fits in. The desire of the republican authorities to restore order in jade mining in Buryatia and, as a result, receive adequate economic dividends is very commendable. Plans to include the “jade” issue as a separate section in the Strategy for the Development of the Mineral Resources Complex of Buryatia for the period until 2017 also, of course, arouse respect. But one gets the feeling that the authorities have difficulty imagining the real state of affairs with jade mining

All this time, the Buryat government is officially “sleeping,” although some officials are already trying to influence the state of things by introducing their people and their companies into the small but promising jade market. At first, jade was calmly transported from Mui and Baunt by plane to Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk. We are talking about valuable and high-grade jade, the cost of which reaches up to $3,000 per kilogram, so a couple of suitcases could cost a fortune. During the time of the then leadership of both the Mukhino airport and the small airports of Taksimo and Bagdarino, there was nothing to be afraid of, there was not even a banal visual inspection of things on domestic airlines. As time passed, the rumor that there was first-class jade in Buryatia spread to the underground Chinese jade market. Representatives of criminal structures poured into the republic, conflicts began with the previous buyers, who, by the way, had already become quite rich. Our crime also did not sleep, in Ulan-Ude, in Taksimo, in Kyakhta, Naushki... However, the “redistribution” did not last long, a couple of armed skirmishes, conversations on concepts and the boys dispersed peacefully.

2.1. ASSESSMENT OF THE CONDITION AND MAIN TRENDS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE JADE INDUSTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BURYATIA

In the Bauntovsky district there are the Ulan-Ude local religious organization - the Buddhist community "Dharma" (hereinafter - U-U MRO BO "Dharma") and the Evenki family community "Dylacha" (hereinafter - SREO "Dylacha").

Golyube LLC and Burom LLC are registered in the Muisky district.

In the Zakamensky district, the enterprise PTP "Kaskad" LLC is registered.

The total production level in 2007 was 909 tons of raw jade and 272 tons of graded jade (the production level in 2006 was 750.7 tons of raw jade and 229.2 tons of graded jade).

The share of the jade industry in the mining industry of the republic in terms of production volume and number of employees is 2.2%.

The entire volume of extracted raw materials in unprocessed form is exported outside the republic, mainly for sale to China.

Almost all subsoil users have violations of licensing conditions for subsoil use.

In 1896, the first primary vein of jade was discovered in the Eastern Sayan along the Khara-Zhalga stream. At the same time, on the banks of the river. On this day, a huge boulder was discovered, later called the “general’s stone,” which was planned for the manufacture of the sarcophagus of Alexander III, but was rejected by his widow because the color of the jade was too dark.

Search and assessment work continued until the 90s of the last century. Moreover, since 1972, all exploration and mining work has been carried out by the state enterprise “Baikalquartz Samotsvety”.

The limited mineral resource base of high-quality stone has caused jade prices to rise by 100% in two years and its production in Russia to increase 18 times over the past 15 years:
1992 - 50 tons of raw jade;
2001 - 471 tons of raw jade;
2007 - 909 tons of raw jade.

3.1. "THE CHINESE WILL NOT LET US IN"

But entrepreneurs still consider the main obstacle to be the inability to work with this mineral in Buryatia. Highly artistic work with jade is done only in India and China. All the latest technologies, all jade processing are also located in Southeast Asia. It is pointless to make consumer goods and souvenirs in Buryatia, because in terms of their artistic value they will not represent anything, and the added value will be not much higher than raw jade. It will take at least 10 years to create your own art school.

What if we bring teachers and craftsmen from China? - Mr. Chepik asked the businessmen, and, lo and behold! - a point of contact was found. In response, businessmen said that “nothing is impossible, but real masters are expensive.”

Words alone are not enough. We are waiting for your suggestions - what equipment you are going to buy, what exhibitions to participate in, how we can help you.

At that point the parties parted, knowing full well that in the foreseeable future they could not escape each other. And it will apparently be necessary to process jade inside Buryatia.

The dissonance to all the plans and conversations on the future of jade was struck by the pleas of one of the businessmen about the crime situation around the jade business (see figure in the appendix):

For some reason, the criminal part is not reflected anywhere. There is barbaric theft going on. At the same time, the prosecutor's office and the police have a stack of letters that remain unclaimed. It turns out like this: the more you write, the more attention you then get, but from the wrong side. Wherever you turn: “This is not ours.” Today, the increase in production costs occurs not due to the purchase of equipment, but due to increased costs for the protection of production. There are armed attacks, why aren’t we talking about this today? Fighting each other, the groups controlling the jade business use the entire arsenal of criminal means of struggle, including setting cars on fire (see Fig. 8, 9, in the appendix).

We have already sent documents to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office with a request to take control of the situation, because this is no longer possible.

This year's largest shipment of jade – 1,791 kg – was seized from a Russian who was illegally transporting it to China for the purpose of selling it. Another case of smuggling was recorded at Grodekovskaya customs in the Primorsky Territory, where the value of the seized 333 kg of jewelry jade was estimated at 313 thousand rubles.

In Russia, 13 out of 16 explored deposits of open-pit jade are located in Buryatia, which provides 90% of the total Russian production. Along with legal subsoil users, black miners and resellers flourish here. Illegal jade miners are divided into several groups. “Divers” have been extracting jade pellets since the days of mountain rivers. “Tramps” are looking for minerals in the taiga, just as free prospectors used to look for gold. The third group formed relatively recently. Representatives of this category enter licensed deposits on “contractual” terms and extract as much jade there as they can carry. The daily fee is 15–20 thousand rubles, and, of course, in cash. Denial of access to a deposit is fraught with various problems for the subsoil user. At best, the jade will simply be stolen from him without offering anything in return.

The other side of the jade problem is the underestimation of export prices by legal subsoil users. According to the Transbaikal Customs, the maximum cost of jade in 2008 was $7, and in 2009 – $8 per kilogram. The budget received over 43 million rubles in taxes. However, according to Vladimir Mathanov, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from Buryatia, “export prices for Buryat jade are underestimated by at least five times, and the amount of tax deductions to the budget can be an order of magnitude higher.” Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Buryatia Alexander Chepik agrees with him. He is also convinced that the republic must learn to retain the “exorbitant added value” that the Chinese earn from processing jade. The President of Buryatia, Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, even declared the need “to deal with jade once and for all in 2010.” The head of the republic emphasizes that legal subsoil users can count on state support, but “only if finished products are manufactured.”

Nevertheless, Buryatia does not give up the dream of jade dollars (as money is called in the region by analogy with petrodollars). The authorities plan to create a corresponding holding company, in which 51% of the shares will belong to the state and 49% to investors. This initiative has already met with resistance from the owners of jade mining cooperatives, who claim that the planned changes will lead to the creation of corruption schemes and raider takeover of those working today (Zolotarev, “Number One”).

Somehow it happened that their colleagues from Moscow were the first to notify about the major victories of the Buryatia police in the decriminalization of the jade industry in Buryatia. At the end of April, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Irina Volk, reported that “employees of the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the Economic Security and Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Buryatia, stopped the illegal mining of jade in the Okinsky district. According to the information available to investigators, the illegal activity was organized by a 68-year-old head of one of the largest commercial enterprises in the region, without a license to develop a quarry.”

A fight with no end in sight

A criminal case has been opened. The entrepreneur is charged with paragraph “b” of Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This is “Illegal entrepreneurship involving the extraction of income on an especially large scale.” During the searches, illegally mined minerals in the amount of 112 tons, worth more than 103 million rubles, were discovered and seized.

The news was widely reported in both local and federal media. After all, catching such a large, seemingly illegal jade miner is a success, although the fight against the illegal trade in “green gold” has been going on for eight years. And it seems that there were even reports that this very turnover was almost defeated. It turns out, no? Is the jade “mafia” the most alive of all living things? She is like the Serpent Gorynych. A good fellow will cut off his head, and in its place a new one will immediately grow. However, in fact, behind these simple questions, others arise.

"Intruder" who discovered jade

How did “the largest commercial enterprise in the region,” that is, a completely legal and long-known one, engage in jade mining without a license, and migrate from the list of reputable companies to the list of illegal entrepreneurs, or, in any case, this is what is suspected of doing so? Its leader would have to be crazy to decide on such metamorphoses.

Well, then, when it becomes known that the “68-year-old head of one of the largest commercial enterprises in the region” is Alexander Sekerin, who heads the truly famous company “Sibirgeologiya”, the questions become even greater. The professional geologist is one of the discoverers and researchers of white jade deposits in the north of Buryatia and green jade in the Eastern Sayan Mountains. The company he heads has been mining jade in the Eastern Sayan Mountains for 20 years. During all this time, neither the control nor the law enforcement agencies had questions for her. Why should she engage in poaching stone extraction?

“Complete nonsense!” – this is how the veteran geologist himself emotionally commented on the accusations against him in an interview with one of the local weekly newspapers, drawing attention to the fact that the case against him may be caused by an attempt at a “raider takeover.” And not the enterprise as such, but several veins of the Gorlykgol deposit on which it operates, as well as already mined stone. The reason for the scandal was a technical error made by government agencies when obtaining a license.

The story of the bureaucratic “beard”

The license for the right to use the subsoil was issued to Sibirgeologiya back in 2002 with the intended purpose and type of work: exploration and extraction of jade from the Gorlykgol deposit (veins No. 10, 36 and 37). But there were inaccuracies in determining the boundaries of the preliminary license allotment. Alexander Sekerin has repeatedly contacted Rosnedra and its territorial structures with requests to correct this technical error. And their presence was confirmed by them! But the correction process took a long time.

However, in 2014, Tsentrsibnedra acknowledged the deviations of the boundaries of the sites from the centers of jade veins No. 36 and 37, sending a letter to Rosnedra indicating that the boundaries required adjustment. However, the boundaries were not adjusted and the technical error remained uncorrected.

In 2016, Sibirgeologiya submits documents for updating the license. Tsentrsibnedra send a letter to Rosnedra, citing the fact that it is the federal structure that must make changes and additions to the license. But Rosnedra notifies its territorial body that it itself has the authority to issue updated licenses, and also points out the need to update the Sibirgeology license as soon as possible. Everything seemed clear!

Alas, at the beginning of this year, Sibirgeology once again appealed to the Centersibnedra with a request to correct a technical error that had already been made during the update, as well as to the Arbitration Court to put an end to the protracted red tape.

“All this correspondence indicates that Sibirgeologiya was not involved in illegal business, did not hide from the state, seeking to correct inaccuracies in its license that appeared through no fault of the company,” says Alexander Sekerin.

Rosnedra has no complaints

This is confirmed by a letter sent to him in response to his request from the Department of Geology and Licensing of the Center for the Republic of Buryatia. The document, in particular, reads: “The exclusive right to use and develop jade veins Nos. 10, 36 and 37 under license UDE 00770 TP belongs to LLC SE Sibirgeologiya.” The balance reserves of jade veins No. 36 and 37 were transferred to the balance sheet of LLC SE Sibirgeologiya in 2002.” And one more thing: “There are no grounds for transferring them to other subsoil users.”

In other words, Rosnedra has no claims against Sibirgeologiya; the indicated veins cannot belong to anyone else. Where did the police come from, reporting such a successful operation with searches and seizure of more than 110 tons of jade? And here it turns out that the Ministry of Internal Affairs received a statement from the General Director of JSC Transbaikal Mining Enterprise (ZGRP), Alexander Voronkov, who asked to check the legality of mining operations on their licensed territory, allegedly carried out by Sibirgeologiya.

And now the questions are endless, starting with a simple one: why is the Ministry of Internal Affairs so sharply interfering in the emerging dispute between two economic entities, although it does not manage state mineral resources? In principle, such a dispute should be resolved in arbitration courts.

If I were white...

It is difficult to get an answer to this question, although one can assume: the whole point is that ZRGP is a “daughter” of the Rostec super corporation and, according to the official version, it ended up in Buryatia not for the sake of self-interest, but only by the will of the state that “sent it.” The noisy redistribution of the jade industry, which took place in 2012–2014, showed that the “daughter” is actually a desperate “boy”.

ZGRP replaced the ever-memorable Evenk community “Dylacha” in the market, which extracted especially valuable white oil at the Kavoktinskoye deposit. The company regularly reports on the growth of production and tax payments, on “white” salaries, and on selfless assistance to the Bauntovsky Evenki district. The company's image as a philanthropist and benefactor is tirelessly maintained.

Well, for now, ZGRP has taken up not only the white Baunt jade, but also the green (cheaper) stone of the Eastern Sayan Mountains, having received a mining license in the vicinity of the Sibirgeologiya site. Why was this needed?

The now ex-Minister of Natural Resources of Buryatia spoke frankly about this in an interview with TASS at the end of 2016:

– Every year 1.6 thousand tons of jade are mined in Buryatia. This is about 100 million rubles in tax revenues to the republic’s budget,” Yuri Safyanov, Minister of Natural Resources of the Republic of Buryatia, told TASS. – Decriminalization of the jade industry, in my opinion, lies in the need to license those areas that are in the unallocated fund. Then each plot will have an owner and he will make sure that there are no “black jades”. The second step is to establish serious work by law enforcement agencies. Now, as I understand it, they took the third step when they tried to monopolize the industry: Rostec came to us, it took the largest deposits, Rostec’s subsidiaries are trying to restore order. I don't know if this will work or not.

Monopolization is going well

It turns out. The process of monopolization is going well. The former jade miners are gradually leaving the Eastern Sayan Mountains. The first victim was Cascade, which may have had its share of sins, but which asked for one thing: to be given the opportunity to pay off all its debts and close down in a civilized manner.

At the end of April, disputes over jade from the Eastern Sayan Mountains became the subject of a case in the Arbitration Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. According to the claim of ZGRP, he invalidated the competition for exploration and production of jade in the Ilchira-Khusha-Gol Interfluve site in Buryatia. Tsentrsibnedra must cancel the license for the right to use subsoil, which was issued to Mineral LLC (Ulan-Ude) in October 2017. The details of the case have not been disclosed, Interfax reported, but, apparently, ZGRP is going to lay claim to this site.

Will monopolization help decriminalization? Nobody knows this. At the end of the day, this is a business issue. If ZGRP does it better, then it’s nothing personal. If ZGRP has problems that it plans to solve by obtaining new areas of work, then there are no problems - take part in competitions.

But the mystery of why the police are so actively helping ZGRP monopolize the jade business should already be classified as a public issue. When the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducts special operations, destroying the camps of truly “black diggers” of jade, well armed and equipped with equipment, this evokes respect. And when does one intervene in business disputes between two companies? Is it not turning into a ministry of “jade” affairs instead of internal affairs? Cases sewn with green thread, as well as white ones, will obviously not bring glory to valiant law enforcement officers.

...Here one involuntarily recalls a curiosity from the protocols: “Before the police arrived, the fight was disorganized.”

Alexander Makurin, for “Number One”
Photo: “Number One”

Jade is a semi-precious ornamental stone. It contains: magnesium, calcium silicate, iron.

Jade is many times stronger than steel

Previously, in China, jade was considered a sacred stone because it was believed that it could induce a person to change his behavior. For a deluded person it becomes dark. In addition, it was credited with the property of protecting its owner from dark and otherworldly forces, as well as providing longevity, even family happiness.

Today, jade stone is processed and beautiful products such as beads, rings and earrings in a silver frame are created from it. Many people wear them as a talisman against the evil eye. A product with red jade will provide protection from lightning and fires, from earthquakes and other disasters from the elements.

The origin of the stone dates back to Neolithic times. The strength of jade made it possible to make tools for hunting and labor, and amulets. It was also used for constructing idols.

Jade deposits are possible in places where volcanic magma has penetrated into the rock. Found in slate, marble and gneisses. They are mined from placers in small streams and rivers, as well as from quarries. At the same time, a mineral extracted from water is valued higher because it is stronger.

There are some known deposits where the mineral was formed under the influence of magma rich in magnesium dolomites.

Despite the open method of jade mining (not in mines), accidents often occur, which leads to human deaths

Deposits can be found on every continent, in more than 20 countries. However, large ones are located in Australia and New Zealand, the USA and China, Russia and Canada.