The white gold of the tundra: trading mammoth ivory | SLICE | FULL DOCUMENTARY

Ever since the international ban on elephant hunting, Russia has cornered the market in ivory. But this ivory comes from mammoths; whose tusks, skeletons and sometimes even their preserved carcasses are constantly being discovered in the frozen earth of Siberia.

Every summer, Russian businessmen and palaeontologists set out on expeditions to these remote areas of the Arctic. Their goal is to find the frozen remains of mammoths in the Siberian permafrost.

Ivory, or “ the white gold of the tundra ” sells for more than fifty dollars a kilogram and represents a market estimated at 2.5 million dollars and whose central point is Hong Kong. To supply this market, men obsessed by ivory travel long, arduous distances through the tundra year in and year out in search of a treasure imprisoned in the eternal ice.

Documentary: Mammoth Hunters
Directed by: Jean Afanassieff
Production: ZED

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