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The amber is mined through the dangerous practice of ‘bell pitting’. Labourers employ primitive hand tools such as machetes, shovels and picks to carve small ‘foxholes’ that they crawl through on hands and knees into 100% humidity and darkness in search of the aged bounty.

The consistent, high translucency and frequent occurrence of fossil inclusions in the amber of the Dominican Republic, make the fossilized Hymenaea tree resin from this location, of the highest quality and of greatest interest to scientific minds, collectors and museums. The amber is mined through the dangerous practice of ‘bell pitting’. Labourers employ primitive hand tools such as machetes, shovels and picks to carve small ‘foxholes’ that they crawl through on hands and knees into 100% humidity and darkness in search of the aged bounty. Yet despite the hazards associated with attaining the amber, the commodity was not considered ‘precious’ for many years and the brave Dominicans who source the amber as a means of providing for their families earned a variable and marginal income. Increased awareness and likewise demand for the rare Dominican amber would stabilize the market value, permitting miners the potential wage of 3,000 to 20,000 pesos (US$85 to $500) per week, exceeding the nation’s minimum wage of 2,600 pesos per month in the public sector. Directly contributing to this increased awareness was the establishment of the Amber World Museum in 1996. Founder and president Jorge Caridad notes themuseum “provided an avenue for giving back to society the important and scientific meaning of these Dominican treasures.” The museum is part of Caridad’s multifaceted family business module,

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