Called "tuskers," these miners, often hailing from impoverished Russian villages, mine for mammoth tusks to sell in the Chinese medicine trade. Sometimes, they snag upwards of $34,000. If they are a little less lucky, but lucky nonetheless, they will come across a horn leftover from a woolly rhinoceros, which will fetch a tusker around $14,000. But the loot comes at a price-- the water pumps tuskers use to unearth ancient animal remains deprives rivers of their water and wreaks havoc on the surrounding environment.The Mammoth Pirates
By Amos Chapple
RADIO FREE EUROPE
In Russia's Arctic north, a new kind of gold rush is under way.
Read the full article here (with great photojournalism): https://www.rferl.org/a/the-mammoth-pir ... 39865.html