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9 L0 h8 p$ h" E& @0 V. T% e% V3 FBurmite or Burmese amber has been known since the distance past. This amber is from the Hukawng Valley in Kachin
5 J+ k3 p* R) zState the northenmost state in the union of Myanmar formally known as Burma . According to ancient Chinese sources
8 r! `5 ]% K6 Y6 f5 A) t% P4 w$ {amber from the Hukawng Valley was mined as early as the first century AD and shipped to Yannan Province in China .
z0 s; A4 ]6 |8 l2 oFrom there, burmite may have found its way along the Silk Road as far west as the Roman Empire , where amber was
; M" a* b! Z& G bhighly prized. It is said that that a good piece of amber was worth the price of a slave. The oldest written record referring
( m6 X1 x! a6 E4 J. i) Yto Burmese amber was in the Annals of the Han Dynasty (205-265 AD). Thus, burmite has been known for about two
, v v1 C# r& z7 t- R8 fthousand years. Much of the exquisitely carved Chinese amber has its origin in the Hukwang Valley . Amber was also
, B: n# q' M( `3 Oused and is still used in Chinese medicine.
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' P8 |, ~& T7 f- f- Y1 VThe first mention of burmite in the western world by a European was by a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary Father Alvarez ' N' y* a9 t' ?2 s5 w3 `9 `- g
Semedo in 1655. He noted that red amber from Yunnan Province in China . In 1738, there is another brief reference to $ u/ C, J3 v0 R) U& Y7 E* q& Q
red amber from Yunnan Province by Du Halde.
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8 S. o5 _2 T) R5 X$ F/ j- FIn the 19th Century, there were a series of reports about the location and mining of Burmese amber By Brester (1835) - @5 A5 x2 X/ ]# n5 K4 q
and Pemberton (1837). Captain S. F. Hannan was the first westerner to visit the amber mines in the Hukong (Hukawng) + i, P4 N9 M4 y3 y/ y& O; L! {. D' Q. b
Valley. He described the primitive mining method utilized by the miners to recover amber consisting of digging shallow
+ G8 e# \' Q- spits with sharpened bamboo and wooden shovels. Description of the amber mines was given by Griffith in 1848 from the
, |. W3 Y) o9 D5 p4 _“Hookhoom” Valley. Some pits, he observed were up to forth feet deep. . ~6 E. t1 l, T
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In 1885, the British invaded and conquered Upper Burma deposing and sent into exile the Burmese Royal Family to 5 |) |( D& j( O! ~9 J# K, P
India . Burma became an annex of India . With the arrival of the British the main trading route in amber went south to . D; F% L0 r( ?1 d {; l
Mandalay rather than to China . The Geological Survey of India sent Dr. Fritz Noetling to evaluate the resources of - Y+ O( z: r" x/ ~! T5 p3 ^, k
northern Burma in 1892. Amber recovered from the Hukwang Valley was examined by Otto Helm who gave the name
8 E0 P7 g2 T4 j; C9 e D6 }! ]6 {burmite to the amber from that area. Noetling also noted the presence of insects in amber thought to be from the area in
|/ A+ b; I B) L# w1893.
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* |0 M% c% c+ V' v" O# S+ t6 `In the first half of the twentieth century, scientific study and production continues until 1939. With the advent of the ( D+ J% \. i. x. w, W( a, {
Second World War, both the production and study languished until the 1990’s. This was due not only to the war but also $ q$ }7 Z9 C6 {7 E' b
internal turmoil within Burma following its independence from Britain in 1947.
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6 [: r, V P8 i4 B0 k( D0 @Cockerell (1917) published the first scientific paper on insect inclusions in burmite. He considered burmite to be possibly + T. p7 c; _( _* r
Upper Cretaceous in age. The Indian Geological Survey published yearly production figures from the Myitkyina District
& W i6 P* @- ^9 t+ ifrom 1898 until 1940. During this period a total of approximately 82,656 kilograms of amber were produced from the
( o) X# g5 O! OHukawng Valley . Scientific papers during this period include work by Stuart (1922), Cocherell (1922), Williamson ! r" C: d8 O$ L3 U! C
(1932), and Chibber (1934). These authors concluded that the age of burmite was Eocene or about the same age as / t& S2 c8 F6 q! }7 B3 d O
Baltic amber. This interpretation was based on a single observation of limestone debris dug from one of the amber pits. 3 |- |$ Y% k( u; ?8 g5 C
Chibber (1934) contains the most detailed report of the amber mines in the Hukawng Valley during this period. $ h7 a" Q# z6 E6 }% x- E
2 f: k# ]& A( ~4 u& N n8 W' MDuring the Second World War there was much fighting in the Hukwang Valley between the advancing allies and the
3 N+ W, |6 s3 s+ L2 C' }Japanese Army culminating in the fierce battle for Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State in 1944. The war also saw the 9 B z7 q8 i& q5 _3 X* h* \% ?
construction of the Ledo Road through the Hukwang Valley from Ledo in India to Mytiknina to Lashio where it connected ' W/ Q- L" p# o8 H2 Z. D4 E
up with the Burma Road to China . This road provided a back door to supply China with desperately needed war
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Since independence, Burma has been racked by internal insurgencies including fighting between the Kachin ; q3 [) ]( \" e# f& c( |7 n$ F0 w
Independence Army (KIA) and the government. It was not until the 1990’s that a peace treaty was signed and limited
c2 G% Y# J" I' qaccess to the amber mine was possible. In 1989, the county was renamed Myanmar , which was the original Burmese
& y3 s L, `) fname of the country. ( O+ b% i. s3 Z1 Z. ^8 n: i
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Since the beginning of the Second World War until recently there was been a sixty year hiatus in production. Dr. David
' D- y, x9 t3 `7 [1 E: BGrimaldi comments in his book on amber published in 1996, “Today, burmite has almost legendary appeal, in part
4 L3 D7 U; T( J& S6 K+ [because the deposits are no longer mined and the supply is generally not available.”
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Leeward Capital Corp., a Canadian Mining company began exploration in 1996 in northern Kachin State for gold and 8 S5 f) c, O8 l9 y6 J; h
platinum. With the collapse of the junior mining market due to the Bre-X Scandal in Indonesia and the drop in the gold " C2 ~& u3 _ ?- h2 z
price, this exploration ceased due to the lack of funding. In 1999, Leeward began to evaluate the possibility of reopening
+ l t" c" m2 q; K- Kthe amber mines in the Hukwang Valley . Limited production was achieved in 2000, and is currently about 500 kg per
! T( k( N, V$ Vyear. The initial 100 kg gathered in the first two years was sent to Dr. Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural
8 f+ a3 ^# H$ V8 m" U, Z' }History in New York for scientific study. In 2000, Zherikjin and Ross of the Natural History Museum , London published a
. C7 G" O% R5 gscientific paper on burmite in which they determined a Cretaceous age for burmite. Grimaldi et al (2002) published a . \1 l; B; Z3 z2 S% ~* B
scientific paper confirming the age of burmite as Cretaceous. Also in 2002, Cruichshank and U Ko Ko published a - Y4 m+ l# Z( ^+ T
description of the amber mines in the Hukwang Valley giving the amber a an Albian or uppermost Lower Cretaceous
/ O- U& O. K5 ]5 Y. bage. This dates burmite as at between 100,000,000 and 110,000,000 years old. Burmite is thus the oldest locality from 7 U9 l8 S/ g# G2 \- K5 W+ Z
which commercial deposits of amber can be mined. Leeward remains the sole exporter of this rare and precious amber.
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5 C4 L" b7 k* r0 i. y9 cSince scientific study of burmite began, there have been numerous scientific papers on the unique biota found in
: _4 A8 ~. N: y5 K7 |( D& _burmite. This book illustrates the diversity of animal and plant life preserved in this ancient amber. |