People in the mountain find gems, experts from behind the border – SME are heading to Slovakia.
The unique location also released record pieces.
Gemer Jablonec. It sounds incredible, but several years of gemstone harvesting treasure hunters from the south of central Slovakia is still not over.
Beautiful blue sapphires are mostly located in one locality above the Gemer village. He and experts talk about an exceptional place. After all, many of them have not seen such big sapphires in Balzalt, which Ladislav Oravec from Fiľakova, found. And he still adds more to them.
He has found dozens of them and this year he added more valuable pieces.
« I am not the only one who found sapphires here. A few people have already left with gems and find more. But as far as their size is concerned, no one has ever beat me. I basically break my own records, » said amateur mineralogist and archaeologist with a smile.
He is pleased that his findings have attracted attention abroad, even on other continents. Thanks to them, our country and a small village in the south of central Slovakia are talked in various parts of the world.
Experts from Hungary were amazed
It was recently visited by experts from Hungary. They wanted to see a mountain full of gems with their own eyes.
« They have already heard a lot about my sapphires and read that they did not want to believe that it really could be true. They came and convinced.
The journey to Gemer Jablonec was measured by well -known Hungarian archaeologist Santa Gábor and David Szabó, a Hungarian mineralogist working at the Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources of the Faculty of Science, Charles University.
« Dr. Gabor registered my findings, but he wanted them, even the area they come from, to see with our own eyes. Christmas gift.
Gift tapped the basalt and found a gem
« » Jesus « brought me a hammer and chisels for minerals. At that time, my friend Štefan Farsang, a native of Rimavská Sobota, was at home, who, after his studies at the prestigious Cambridge University, works at the University of Geneva. I have to convince a long time, ”the well -known native of Šurice recalls in Slovakia and abroad.
And they did not return empty from the hills. Testing a Christmas gift brought another finding. Laci, as the acquaintances call him, tapped the basalt and found another blue beauty.
The latest sapphire findings of Ladislav Oravec. (Source: Ladislav Oravec album)On the margo of sapphires in basalt, located in an abandoned quarry above the village, Štefan Farsang commented for MY Novohrad Also in July 2020, when we went with him to this place.
Štefan Farsang, currently working at the University of Geneva, in an abandoned quarry nad Gemer Jablonec. (Source: Marcela Ballová)« Bazalt in which sapphires are here is no more than 5 million years old. Once upon a time
Quarry full of gems
• The sapphire occurring in the basalt in the bone valley and the location on the border of Hajnáčky and Gemer Jablonec, he was documented for the first time in 1899 by the mineralogist and geologist Július Szadeczky. After a hundred years, the sapphire, although only ventilated in sediments, was found again. His publicity was taken care of by Professor of Mineralogy at Comenius University in Bratislava Pavel Uher.
• The area is currently the most important site of this gem in the entire Carpathians. Together with Opal from Dubník they are the only Slovak gems.
He was a magma that brought the sapphire crystals to the Earth’s surface from a depth of several kilometers. Research by minerals in basalt will tell us more about the geological history of the Carpathian region. ”
He added that there are also crystals of other minerals that do not normally occur in basalte, such as zircon, anortoclas or quartz. « Thanks to this unusual mineralology, the local basalt is at least a European unique. »
It is also interesting that most curbs on the roads crossing the metropolis of former Austria – Hungary, namely Budapest, Vienna or Bratislavait is from basalt from Novohradské quarries. It is therefore very likely that many gems lie right at their feet.
They know about what the old quarry hides in Bratislava
The findings from the basalt quarry and its surroundings were also particularly interested in experts from Comenius University in Bratislava. Professor Pavel Uher, in April 2018, said that this is an important European site not only in terms of mineralogy, but also paleontology.
Ladislav Oravec at the information board before entering the bone valley, which is the largest department of sapphires in the Carpathians. (Source: Marcela Ballová)« After all, in the middle of the 19th century, the bones of the Tapir and the trunchers were dug here. Part of them still admire in museums in Vienna, Budapest or Prague, » he said, adding that in 1997, just during the paleontological research, his colleague Martin Sabol came to him. « Paľo, see what blue mineral I found, » he said.
Since then, the protected landscape area Cerová Highlands has been an object of its interest, which has become even more aimed by the findings of Ladislav Oravec.
The importance of the site from the perspective of experts on minerals was confirmed several times by Daniel Ozdín from the Faculty of Science of Comenius University, the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology. Oravec has been working with him for a long time, I send him samples of his finds.
Daniel Ozdín from the Faculty of Science of Comenius University, the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in an abandoned quarry over Gemer Jablonec. (Source: Marcela Ballová)« In September we plan to release, so far in limited quantities, a book about sapphires from Gemer Jablonec, » revealed Oravec, who wants to make even more visible location, from which the sapphire samples went to Russia or Japan.
And that there will be something to write about his record findings. So far, the largest sapphire in the basalt found in Slovakia was found last July on a rainwashed forest road. Because of its shape and color, it called it a tear of the ocean. It measures almost two centimeters.
So far, the largest sapphire found in Slovakia. Ladislav Oravec called it a tear of the ocean. (Source: from Ladislav Oravec’s album)Previously, his findings were unleashed to Gemer and in Novohrad sapphire feversince he took care of a big stir already in 2016. At that time he found the king. So he named the gem of 1.43 cm. Four years later he shocked another 1.6-centimeter sapphire.
At the end of last year, he said that the tear of the ocean had completed his record shamrock. However, this year he is already looking forward to a unique four -leaf clover and believes that the most remarkable piece of him is still waiting for him in the old quarry. « And it will be a bitch, » he finished with humor.
