This year, it is planned to recover 700 tons of the gemstone in the Primorsky quarry

Photo: Kaliningrad Amber Combine

Rostec’s Kaliningrad Amber Combine is approaching a new gemstone mining record. Instead of 600 tons planned for this year, 700 tons of amber will be mined in the Primorsky quarry. Increase in the extraction volume is driven by the growing global demand for amber. 

The combine mines amber in the Primorsky quarry, world’s largest gemstone deposit, in the Kaliningrad Region. The quarry was launched in 1976. Only 47 tons of amber were extracted from the quarry at the start. By 2014, excavation reached as many as 260 tons. After becoming part of Rostec State Corporation, combine’s mining facility was modernized and the extraction volume increased by more than half, up to 627 tons, for over the decade.

“Rostec’s Kaliningrad Amber Combine is the major global amber market player. Our share of legal mining of this unique gemstone is about 89%. The extracted amber is sold by means of open bidding procedures. The amount of amber purchased by processing facilities was growing proportional to the mining growth. Whereas 300 tons were extracted in 2015, last year the amount reached already 578 tons. Modernization and effective production engineering in the Primorsky quarry will allow us to mine additional 100 tons of the gemstone this year and to offer them for the domestic and foreign market next year,” said Mikhail Zatsepin, General Director of the Kaliningrad Amber Combine.