FSUE VNIIOkeangeologia named after I. S. Gramberg:

A. N. Smirnov, Deputy Director, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, e-mail: oceangeo@vniio.ru

Russia is the world monopolist for the resources and extraction of fossil mammoth ivory (FMI) (the tusks of Siberian mammoth Mammuthus primigenius) – a unique biogenic material, completely similar to the modern ivory. During the last decade, the production of FMI (30-50 tons annually) has been carried out mainly on the dry land of the North Yakutian province, embracing the coastal lowlands of the Yano-Kolymsk interfluves and Novosibirsk islands. A high interest of the inner and outer markets to this analogue of ivory, identifying its high price and liquidity, stimulate the necessity of expanding its resources. The FMT resource expansion may be realized in two directions. The first, conventional one – on the dry land. The second is defined by a new, practically not developed problem of the studies and exploitation of predicted sea placers of FMT in the shallow waters of East Arctic seas. It may be expected much from this seabed accumulations of mammoth tusks – practically unknown and hypothetic for the Arctic. These questions are conditional on the necessity of overall interdisciplinary approaches, including geological, geographic and biological investigations, scientific production researchings in the domain of hydro acoustics, underwater TV and diving. It seems feasible to organize such works in the frames of a Federal or national (Saha/Yakutian Republic, keeping in mind the priority of the resource importance of the North Yakutian province) program of complex researchings of the prospects of commercial production of FMT in the Russian Arctic, including its sea shelf areas.

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