00:00 Weighing in at 26 tons, or about four African elephants' worth of crystalline stone,
00:06 this massive geode costs almost $1 million.
00:10 Amethyst isn't particularly rare.
00:13 In fact, it's a type of quartz, one of the most common minerals on Earth.
00:18 But the geodes that miners laboriously excavate from Astorres Mine in Artigas, Uruguay, can still cost a pretty penny.
00:27 So, how much does size matter? And what else makes amethyst so expensive?
00:36 Hundreds of years ago, amethyst was considered as valuable as rubies and sapphires.
00:46 But in the 1800s, massive deposits were discovered in South America, tanking its value.
00:54 Now, Uruguay is one of the most prolific producers of amethyst in the world.
00:58 And this mine is renowned for its massive geodes.
01:22 Las Torres Mine sits on a wide and ancient basaltic lava flow, ideal conditions for amethyst geodes.
01:29 But excavating amethyst is no easy feat.
01:34 The volcanic rock that surrounds it, known as basalt, is porous, allowing water to seep in.
01:41 Miners know how to use this feature to their advantage.
01:45 You have to keep in mind that these bubbles, which are 140-150 million years old,
01:50 fill up with rainwater that seeps through the basalt cracks.
01:55 So all the amethyst geodes have a lot of water.
01:59 Miners set off controlled explosions to clear away rock and blast small fissures in undiscovered geodes.
02:09 [Music]
02:31 [Spanish]
02:48 Miners like Renato Arocena start assessing the amethyst's value before it's even out of the ground.
02:57 [Spanish]
03:07 As lava cools into rock, bubbles of volcanic gas form pockets.
03:13 In the right conditions, those pockets can turn into this.
03:19 [Spanish]
03:28 Amethyst is quartz that has changed colour because of exposure to radioactive material.
03:34 Over millions of years, the quartz gradually absorbs the radiation that's naturally present in the rock that surrounds it.
03:43 This radiation agitates iron atoms in the quartz, which burn off the excess energy in the form of visible light.
03:50 That radioactivity is what makes amethyst purple.
03:54 Higher concentrations of iron result in deeper hues.
03:59 [Spanish]
04:12 [Music]
04:25 At Las Torres, miners extract small geodes and chunks of amethyst from an open-air mine.
04:32 [Spanish]
04:43 But it's in the tunnels where the largest and most prized specimens lie.
04:48 [Spanish]
04:54 And the stakes get higher when dealing with the giant geodes.
04:59 [Music]
05:08 [Spanish]
05:24 [Music]
05:29 [Spanish]
05:44 [Music]
05:50 Iron rods work as guides that show the miners where and how to cut the rock around the geode.
05:56 [Spanish]
06:17 [Music]
06:25 The raw material is washed and sorted by size and quality.
06:30 [Music]
06:35 [Spanish]
06:51 [Music]
06:54 Artisans like Ricardo Martinez take the raw materials and transform them.
07:01 [Music]
07:25 He uses various sized diamond discs to grind each stone into his desired size and shape.
07:31 [Music]
07:40 [Spanish]
07:45 Small flaws can be fixed at this stage.
07:50 [Spanish]
07:59 But major breaks will significantly reduce the value of larger pieces.
08:05 [Spanish]
08:14 Carlos Anchis owns Les Verges Minerals, one of Artigas' largest amethyst exporters and home of its largest amethysts.
08:22 Like this 26-ton colossus.
08:26 [Spanish]
08:42 It took eight months to process it and move it from the mine to where it stands now.
08:48 Finding a buyer for a behemoth like this is no easy feat.
08:53 Sometimes they can stand around for years.
08:57 [Spanish]
09:13 So producers will often work with international retailers that basically act as brokers between them and potential customers.
09:23 Most of Les Verges Minerals' sales consist of smaller pieces.
09:27 But small doesn't necessarily mean cheap.
09:31 [Spanish]
09:51 Different combinations of minerals and naturally occurring shapes can also boost the price.
09:57 [Spanish]
10:26 [Spanish]
10:33 [Music]
10:37 [Spanish]
10:58 While the demand for diamonds plummeted during the pandemic, the opposite was true for near gemstones.
11:06 Crystals like amethyst have long been associated with metaphysical healing.
11:10 And while there's no scientific evidence to back those claims, the industry still grew to be worth more than $1 billion in 2020.
11:19 That demand is good news for Les Verges and Las Torres, where there is plenty of supply left to be discovered.
11:28 [Spanish]
11:39 [Music]
11:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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