The Type Locality for Dioptase - Altyn Tyube

Last week I was in Kazakhstan and met up with local mineral dealer Sergei Golomolzin for a pre-planned visit to a couple of mineral localities in the country. The first was a very impressive deposit of chrysoprase , which I'll write about later. But the second, and most exciting for me, was Altyn Tyube , the type locality of Dioptase First, for those who don't know, a brief introduction to Kazakhstan. A central asian republic, formerly in the Soviet Union, it is the eighth largest country in the world. The primary terrain is steppe, vast uncultivated grasslands. A few roads cut across from village to village, but the vast majority of the territory is untouched.I flew in to Almaty in the south of the country, where I also visited the Geological Museum (which I'll again detail later). Later we took a ten hour train to Karaganda, in the center of the country.This is the steppe. Wide, desolate but beautiful, richer in colour than the photos can really show, and teeming with wildlife.And this was our transport for the trip, a Russian built UAZ-452 4x4 minivan, nicknamed 'Bukhanka' in Russian (for loaf of bread). The design has been produced, almost unchanged for sixty years. This particular vehicle is only a year old.The vehicle, with bare fold-down benches for seats in the back, has only one concession for comfort, a padded roof, which I became very grateful for!Here we are at the chrysoprase locality about to depart to go to Altyn Tyube.There are few main roads in Kazakhstan, and Altyn Tyube is not conveniently near to one of them. You have to go off road, and drive on the steppe - for 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the nearest prepared road. Sergei told me that during winter it once took him 18 hours to drive these 18 kilometers through the snow. It took us about an hour (plus 30 minutes in breaks) to drive from the main road to the mine.These are the tracks through the steppe we drove over. In many places you really couldn't see much of a track at all, or we made new ones because (as here) the route was waterlogged.But some times there was no option but to go through the water.We made a slight detour to a little lake. The lake is called Altyn Syu (which means 'Golden Water' in the Kazakh language). Coincidentally, 'Zelotaya Vada', the fake name for the fake 'helidor' locality supposedly in Tajikistan means 'Golden Water' in Russian. You may sometimes see Altyn Syu on locality labels for Dioptase, but this is incorrect, there's no Dioptase found here.At the lake Sergei and his friends stripped off and jumped in.Back on our way, Sergi's son shouted out "Gribi" and the van screeched to a halt. We all jumped out. Gribi (or грибы) is Russian for mushrooms. As an aside, Russian is by far the most popular language spoken in Kazakhstan, with 90% of people speaking it, and only 50% speaking the native Kazakh language. Of course, the further away from major towns you get, the more Kazakh you hear being spoken.We started collecting mushrooms, and in less than five minutes we had two large plastic carrier bags filled.As I mentioned, the steppe is full of interesting wildlife. We saw Ibex, Marmots, wild horses and many birds of prey, including four spectacular eagles sitting on this rock. As we approached only one remained.Finally, we approached the mine workings. The mine is permanently occupied. Currently there is a lot of activity as they are drilling to find new dioptase-bearing areas. There is good future potential according to their recent exploration work.They have built an underground living area, with bunks, kitchen and store room. It is surprisingly cosy. They have water from their own well - in fact this was the only place we visited in Kazakhstan where it was safe to drink the tap water!But the luxury doesn't end there. Next door is their underground sauna.The underground living quarters aren't for guests. Guests get to stay in their newly constructed guesthouse (they are extending it to have shower facilities soon).Currently the facilities included in the guest quarters are a clean carpeted room with fantastic views, full electric lighting, a telescope and an underground dioptase mine. Yes, a dioptase mine.Here is Sergei descending through the trapdoor into the mine.Down some ladders we go.And, at the bottom, we see traces of what we came for. Dioptase.As the day grew on we had to make a decision - do we head back tonight, or do we stay until morning? It wasn't a hard choice, but we had to phone to let others know of our change of plans. Mobile phone signal was available on top of a nearby hill. So we set off on a little walk into the steppe. One of the mine's "guard dogs" decided to come with us for the walk. The dogs feed themselves by hunting on the steppe. When they're satisfied they often bring "gifts" of mice and other small animals back to the mine.On our quick walk we found several mushrooms.And an adder found us. Luckily he was almost as scared of us as we were of him, and quickly disappeared.Safely back to the mine after our snake encounter, we had a wander around. Here is a pile of dioptase specimens. These pieces are destined to be used in the extension of the living quarters - walls will be made with dioptase-rich rock!A closer look at the dioptase-bearing rock. None of this is fantastic material, but all of these pieces are far richer than the best dioptase I have ever found in Arizona (my only other dioptase-collecting experience).In fact, dioptase is everywhere here. You see tiny green crystals in the mud, you see rocks coated with green crystals everywhere.We looked at some of the excavations in the open cut pit. Here my wife Katya is looking at a specimen with Sergei.It takes me very little time to find a piece with some reasonably large crystals.Not a spectacular piece, some damage, but crystals up to 1cm of dioptase. Collecting my own dioptase crystals of this size has been a dream for many, many years. Of course, it needs a trim too.But time is not on our side, and soon we have to stop collecting as the sun goes down.The team gather by the entrance to the living quarters discussing plans for the evening. A group of hunters/trappers also use this as a base to hunt marmot. Coincidentally, we had very tasty fresh Russian meat dumplings that evening.As night fell, I began to regret not bringing my tripod. Then I remembered the telescope. Could the tripod for that have a standard fitting that would fit my camera? Yes, of course it does! So, I tried some night photos.At 18 kilometers from the nearest road, and with not a single light to be seen in any direction it is a truly wonderful place for those interested in the stars, or in night photography.Finally time to sleep for a 6am departure. We awake to sunrise over the steppe.Our friendly guard dog says goodbyeAnd off over the steppe we drive.I can safely say this has been the most incredible locality I have ever visited. Next time I hope to stay for several days!Would you like to visit this amazing locality? We will be arranging one or more trips for small groups (5-6 people per trip) over the next year - if you're interested in visiting this amazing place and digging your own dioptase please contact me!