Amber Mines – Biosyn Valley (S/F)

A Dimetrodon near an entrance to the mines.

The Biosyn Valley amber mines are a series of mostly disused tunnels and mine shafts built for excavating amber specimens from the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. They have been owned by Biosyn Genetics since the 1990s, and currently are a part of the Biosyn Genetics Sanctuary. Although the original purpose of Biosyn’s search for Mesozoic age amber can only be guessed at, the mines were mostly abandoned by 2022, with their use only partially as tunnels for the hyperloop system.

A Dimetrodon swims through a flooded pit as it stalks Grant, Sattler, and Maisie as they leave the safety of the hyperloop tram.

The mines could be accessed by the hyperloop tunnels, as Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Maisie Lockwood discovered while traveling from the Biosyn headquarters building to the airfield. When the hyperloop tram stalled, the trio entered the mines seeking an alternative way of reaching the airfield. The mine at the time was still accessible by foot, though some of the caverns had been flooded, or found to be the residence of de-extinct animals such as a pack of Dimetrodons. Mining equipment such as pick-axes, rock-filled carts on rails, and hand tools such as wrenches and shovels were still left in the mines. Although their identity is unknown, at least one person fell victim to an animal in the mine, as their skull was spotted by Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler while fleeing Dimetrodons in 2022. The mine shaft did have at least one surface-level entrance, which was sealed off with a heavy metal gate.