MONEY UNDER THE OPEN SKY IN GEORGIA

KETI MIKELADZE

As exterior of buildings should last for centuries as well as meet new tastes, given the Georgian climate (cold winter, moisture in the west) it would be desirable to face the ground of buildings (if it is not ground floor) with materials that have high heat insulating features such as diabase, granite, gabro-granite, sinter and basalt.

People cannot afford these materials, yet they would be irreplaceable in the conditions of expensive electricity. Besides, sinter, basalt and granite are good and reliable in case of earthquakes and other damages. However, marble does not have these parameters. Churches are faced in accordance with the same principle. They are faced with materials having high calorific capacity and reliability. For instance, Alaveridi is faced with sand stone, Bolnisi Sioni with sinter, Svetitskhoveli and Jvari with sand stone.
Reserves of materials are quite impressive, for instance, cement rock field in Sadakhlo is 1,881,000 sq. meters, cement rock field in Darkveti is 6,115,000 sq. meters, that of Eklaro – 3,858,000 sq. meters, etc. Raw products for facing materials amount to 196,4 million sq. meters.
Great capital circulates in the production and realisation of facing materials giving most population the chance to become a well-off layer. The assortment of these materials changes so quickly that builders have no time to learn any novelties. This gradually changes the exterior of the city. We should study different analytical opinions in order to learn how to use the resources. We speak to Nicholas Loladze, chief of diamond and compositional materials laboratory: “No one denies the fact that we have a great potential of volcanic wealth. True, we had a barbarously acquired method, yet we are not going to speak about this, but rather about the paradox: the speciality – technology of stone production – is not studied in countries where traditional stone is produced. Each stone has its properties, it requires special machinetools… Since the earlier period the so-called workshops were formed at most of these quarries. Who were directors? Party members of the district. Engineers and technologists were considered local cadres. People thought that if one’s ancestors ground stones, there was no need to study this method and take specialists’ recommendations. At the same time, Russia extracted raw material by explosions in its fields (Ural) as well as in neighbouring republics. It was not because Russia had a grudge against us. It simply chose the simplest method. Many people are not aware that there are different methods even in explosions. There are non-losing variants of extraction by exploding rocks, but one needs education and intellect for this.
For Georgian mentality, a business offer means “poking one’s nose into other people’s business” …. There was ministry of building materials, there were business plans. Was anyone interested in this? No. Business plan is the result of our experience. It describes in detail the work of stone-producing mini-factories taking into consideration that this should be arranged in Georgia and a Georgian worker should work at machinetool. The business plan considers “Georgian” or changeable current, our or unfiltered water. Stones can be produced in the diapason ranging from 5 mm to 2 mm thick.
It is common knowledge that world market as well as Georgian one is filled with natural facing materials, but our market still consumes expensive granite of Ukraine. Owners of cemeteries will agree with us. Besides this, of foreign materials Ural’s white marble is used for cemeteries. Yet local materials are more consumed: Gokhnari, Akhaltsikhe, Bolnisi basalt, Kutaisi and Tkibuli granite. Some say that up to 40 workshops are engaged in ritual work in Tbilisi and they do not complain of reduction in orders.
In 1992 Italians came to Salieti fields. A year later they cut blocks and imported technic, but in 1996 they left. Respondents are reluctant to speak on the subject. There are the following suppositions about their leave: they left because their marble would not be sold here. According to the second version, a great number of limestone had to be produced. It is difficult to make any conclusions about this due to informational vacuum.
We speak to Naom Bochorishvili, head of the chair of labour security and mining aerology in Technical University: “Despite the fact that in soviet period limestone was produced intensively, the extracted quantity hardly even makes up 2-3% of the existing reserves. Reserves of granite are in fact inexhaustible. Since the 40s marble has been exported to Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Poland. Unfortunately, Georgia failed to use one thing that would help us to acquire modern equipment. Italians came in 1972. They have white marble famous for its beauty. They would not have to be surprised in white marble, yet they liked Salieti materials. They offered barter. We would have exported raw materials and imported equipment from Italy… Suddenly, something inexplicable happened. Local population, criminals and others interfered with this. I do not have more information on this subject.
As it seems, disorders did not begin 10 years ago, but comparatively earlier, thirty years ago. One gets an impression that persons engaged in quarry business, know more than say. It was the beginning of collision of interests that has become obvious now. These are, on the one hand, attempts to increase quality production and improve local technology and, on the other hand, interests aimed at imported materials.
According to customs press-centre, the year 2000 was a leading one in export of facing materials. Approximately 1370 tons of basalt, 120 tons of granite, 1800 tons of marble, 84 tons of sinter and 604 tons of other stones were exported. This year import was less in number totalling 622,9 thousand dollars. In subsequent years export reduced. For instance, in 2001 export fell to 1,7 million dollars, i.e. it decreased by 58% compared with previous year. At the same time, there “appeared” such export materials as sinter and granite. As for 2002, this year marble was not exported at all. Only 395 tons of basalt and 55 tons of other stones were exported (753,5 thousand dollars all in all). This year import decreases, too, though the assortment remained the same. Import value is less than that of previous year – 417,7 thousand dollars. These data reveal glut of facing materials in the world market. Sioni Cathedral was the largest object that contributed to the encouragement of producers of facing materials. It was religion that helped us or, to be more exact, it was religious spirit that for the last three years has manifested itself in the construction of churches through the aid of some funds. Construction fund oriented itself on local building materials. The same concerned facing materials. Tengiz Abuladze, director of the fund, thinks that it is not a caprice and that we have a great choice: “Irakli Andriadze, chairman of the fund, decided to face the cathedral with Bolnisi sinter. In 1958 we opened the once closed quarry of Pakhralo. People were employed. The ground of the cathedral was made with grey stone. As for the interior, we will decide upon this later. We will, probably, use a small number of foreign materials as they are quite expensive”.
Sinter had a luck due to its tonality, though limestone patterns (from Dmanisi and Akhalkalaki), diabase (Kazbegi, Tkibuli, Racha), Greek granite are also to be estimated in the office of the fund. Construction of Sameba cathedral provided many people with jobs and it will provide more jobs in the future. That is why it was called construction of the century and symbol of economic recovery. However, already nowadays one can feel concern about losing functions after the construction is over.