page_title: Amber
section_title: Distribution and mining
hierarchical_section_title: Amber / Extraction and processing / Distribution and mining
caption_attribution_description: English: Baltic amber. Amber deposit "Primorskoe" in Jantarny (Palmnicken). Deutsch: Baltischer Bernstein. Lagerstätte "Primorskoe" in Jantarny (Palmnicken).
context_page_description: Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.
  There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams.
context_section_description: Amber is globally distributed, mainly in rocks of Cretaceous age or younger.
  Historically, the coast west of Königsberg in Prussia was the world's leading source of amber. The first mentions of amber deposits here date back to the 12th century. About 90% of the world's extractable amber is still located in that area, which became the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia in 1946.
  Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves and collected by hand, dredging, or diving. Elsewhere, amber is mined, both in open works and underground galleries. Then nodules of blue earth have to be removed and an opaque crust must be cleaned off, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. Erosion removes this crust from sea-worn amber.
  Caribbean amber, especially Dominican blue amber, is mined through bell pitting, which is dangerous due to the risk of tunnel collapse.
caption: Open cast amber mine "Primorskoje" in Jantarny, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia
exif: {"Image Copyright": "2014 by PrinWest"}