EMERALD MINES IN URAL MOUNTAINS TO BE MODERNISED

Shannon News, 31 December 1928, Page 3

EMERALD MINES IN URAL MOUNTAINS TO BE MODERNISED

Worked for thousands v of years by, the crudest of methods, the fabulously rich emerald mines of the Urual Mountains are now being modernised by American machinery directed' by American experts, states the f San Francisco > Chronicle.’ The mines are owned by Russia, but the Soviets are willing to allow Americans to run them in order t- develop their latent wealth.

The mines are worked by Russians, and the gems are cut and polished, ready for the market, by men Und women workers. It is necessary to delve a hundred feet or more into, the ■earth' to find the beautiful '.emeralds. The digging is done with crude tools and methods exactly :as it has ,been done for centuries. The workers TTave lived in the past in crude buildings usually of logs. Unmarried ivomen live i nspecial barracks, while .those who are married have separate h-ouses. The'work of finishing the stones for' the market has been done in a very primitive'way. The .workers use an- v eient tools in the delicate work of polishing the stones. * The workers have spent their lives in the) mines or in the finishing' shops, and in many cases, their fathers and grandfathers before them worked in the same places,-and under exactly the same monotonous

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