Police reports increase in illegal Moldavite mining

The Czech Environmental Inspectorate has registered over 30 cases of mining of Moldavite, a greenish-brown semi-precious stone, during the first half of 2020. In the same period last year, the Inspectorate saw only 20 some such cases.

Scientists believe the bottle-green gemstones were formed from condensed rock vapours more than 20 million years ago after a meteorite impact. Rich deposits of the stone are scattered over south Bohemia.

Illegal Moldavite hunters are destroying large areas of land by digging deep holes in the ground, some of them over three metres deep.