Corona Virus Slowing the sale of Amber
February 25, 2020
We just got back from a long 18 day “Tucson Gem and Mineral show” in Tucson, Arizona. Amber International had a booth at the 22nd Street Show, which is known to be the biggest and the baddest of all the Gem and Mineral shows in Tucson. The show was a success for us, but the Corona Virus has put a severe damper on the Amber industry as a whole. The exception, rare Dominican Blue Amber. Although we picked up a number of new clients, a majority of Asian and Chinese international buyers were a no show. By the crowd sizes we believe this year had a significant decrease in attendees. The show had some Chinese vendors, most who live in the United States, but again, the Chinese and Asian buyers were missing in action.
All of us in the Amber industry know that the Chinese are the biggest buyers of Amber in the world followed by the Europeans, then North America. The Amber business is hard and difficult already, without the interference of the Corona Virus. We have notice in 20% drop in the purchases of our regular green and yellow Dominican and Chiapas (Mexico) Amber to the Asian community.
Blue Amber, as scarce as it is, has not shown any movement in price. According to Blue Amber dealers in the Dominican Republic the Chinese have stopped buying and have attempted to lower the price of the rare blue stone. Fortunate for the Blue Amber industry the European and Middle Eastern buyers have stepped up the purchase of Dominican Blue Amber.
Thankfully for us, Amber International has a strong support from our International and American buyers. All walks of life, all buying, Dominican Blue Amber.
Marcelo
Amber International
New Mine site
February 11, 2020
We are in the process in opening a new Amber hole in a mine south of El Valle, Hato Mayor. A Region of the Dominican Republic. Times have been difficult in the search for blue amber. The last two holes we mined, in El 20, turned out to be a total disaster. We spent four months at El 20 mine with minimal green and yellow amber and zero blue amber mined. It’s not just us, several mines are active in the area, yet no one has produced any significant amber of any sort.
Our new location is not known to produce blue amber but according to the locals it produces a stunning greenish/blue called gay blue. The new location at times might produce some sort of red amber. Although I’ve only seen a small 2 gram piece of the red amber, there’s hope we get lucky and find a large pocket of this rare amber.
Marcelo
The start of a new venture
October 10, 2019
Amber International is now mining Larimar, we have purchased a hole in the Larimar Mine in Bahoruco Dominican Republic. After spending weeks and months in search for quality larimar thus unable to find the quality we are looking for. We at Amber International decided that the only way is to mine our own Larimar.
We are in the first stages of mining. We are in the process of marking out the territory in which we will be mining. Once that’s completed we will start the digging and removing dirt, creating the passage (cave) that will bring us to the first vain in the Mountain. According to the Dominican Republic Department of Mining and Energy the Larimar mine has eight veins. This process should take us three weeks of digging and removing dirt for us to reach the first vain. With a little luck and the blessing from all the known gods we should be in production with in a month.
The larimar mine is based of a large tunnel constructed by the Dominican Government, on top of the mine, locals have made holes and tunnels by hand so they wouldn’t have to pay the association fees that goes with owning inside the main tunnel. By starting from the top of the mine they must dig 100 to 150 feet down to get to the level that the government tunnel is located. Everything in the mine is done by hand shovels and picks. The only machines or electric tools used are jackhammers and winches.
Mining Larimar is not an easy task. Owning a hole or a location doesn’t guarantee that we will find Larimar and if you do find Larimar the odds of us finding good AAA quality is extremely hard and rare. Our experience in mining is a plus, mining amber is similar in mining larimar. We are looking forward in starting our new adventure and we will also continue to mind and bring you the finest Amber in the world.
Marcelo Jimenez
CEO
