Mammoth remains have been in the permafrost of far northern Russia for thousands of years.
In the past 25 years people have started digging them up.
Mammoth ivory is a growing industry in Russia’s far north. With trade in ivory from living animals illegal, ancient ivory is in demand.
Yakutia, Russia is now the world’s mammoth ivory headquarters. It provides 90 percent of the world’s supply.
Last year Yakutia shipped 88 tons of mammoth ivory, mostly to China.
“The boom of tusk collection started roughly in the 90s,” says Yakutsk businessman Pavel Mukhoplev.
“Actually the market for mammoth tusk is shaped by China, because the main consumer of tusks is China.”
Mammoth ivory demand is causing Yakutia a lot of problems.
“The main thing that interferes in the business is smuggling, because they don’t pay taxes or custom duties,” Pavel Mukhoplev explains.
“The prices of tusks illegally trafficked into China end up lower.”
Smuggling is growing, as is illegal prospecting. Digging for tusks is illegal, but the area is too vast for the town to control. Many licensed prospectors blast water from high-pressure pumps to wash away soil to reveal buried mammoth remains. The ecological damage is enormous.
The profit margin is equally enormous.
The ivory sells for $430 for 2.2 pounds, right out of the ground. In Asia, a cut and polished tusk will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A five-year prospecting license costs $131.
Yakutia’s government wants mammoth ivory to be taxed like mined minerals. If mammoth ivory generated the same revenue as gold or iron ore, there would be funds for proper law enforcement and regulation.
Some people say the entire ivory trade is problematical. People could poach elephants and sell their tusks as mammoth ivory.
