The company is planning to mine 600 tons of the ‘sunstone’

Photo: Kaliningrad Amber Combine

The Kaliningrad Amber Combine has resumed Baltic stone mining after the winter break. The operations started on 3 March in the Primorsky quarry. Production plan for this year is 600 tons of amber. 

Baltic amber is extracted using the open-pit mining method. The gem occurs at a depth of 40 to 50 meters under a waste bed. These beds are removed by excavators and stockpiled in the Primorsky quarry for further field reclamation. These preparatory activities are conducted all the year round. The combine starts direct mining in the warm season because the process uses water that freezes at temperatures below zero.

The Primorsky amber field in the Kaliningrad Region is the world’s largest one. Its capacity is estimated at more than 53,000 tons of Baltic amber. This is sufficient to extract the fossils during another 100 years. The Amber Combine started excavating the Primorsky quarry in 1976. Only 47 tons of amber were extracted from this field at that time. The indicator for 2024 was equal to 627 tons and was record-breaking for the quarry. 

In-house processing volume also grows in parallel with production increase. Rostec State Corporation has invested about 3.4 billion rubles in the combine development since 2015. The money was spent for modernization of the mining facility at the Primorsky quarry site, special vehicle fleet purchase and renewal, workplace equipment and organization of modern jewelry production.