Well heres what it looks like were im diggin lots of mineraliztion and mica found
small amount of baryl 2 small yellow greenish tourmalines found a pocket here a while back that had water in it but only some black crystals blahhh.. What do you guys think?
Cool. Well im headed back out there this morning in a few I,ll get some batteries and take some more pictures i,ll be posting them later. (fingers still crossed) gotta find that pocket zone.
Didnt make much proggress yesterday hit a lot of mica some big pieces like the one im holding. Theres a shot up from where im diggin of those boulders of F
elspar, Quartz that stuff looks rotten and old to me and some black tpourmaline rite on the otherside of were im diggin.And a big piece of Quartz next to th bucket. More pics later.
Hey Wilffndgold, Sorry i never got back to you have been swamped with work. Glad to see you made it out there and have started digging best of luck it seems to me like your on the right path. Finding those garnets is awesome, keep looking, with some that large i bet there are some smaller gemmy ones around. The mesa grande mine in socal, and i think the little ramona mine in socal produced gem grade, or atleast clearer colorful garnets. I tried to get out yesterday and dig, but the ground is already freezing up out here. We got one really nice week left though so im gonna try and get out there, got a good tip and am close to getting permission.
So keep at it, your bound to get lucky in an area like that. If you can see if you cant find any geologic surveys of the area, and try and find out the direction that the pockets are moving in the pegmatite, this can be hard to find, but a good starting place is already existing mines, and older books 1900-1950s are usually good sources.
Mineralogy Database - Mineral Collecting, Localities, Mineral Photos and Data is a great source to use for mine info, search for the himalaya mine mindat, then go to maps and select nearest locality's and look at the tourmaline mines down there you can get some direction of the pegamatite formation and direction from them usually, and then try and guesstimate the direction of yours from theres. You might even be digging in the middle of all the mines. It will help you alot get to get a sense of if your digging in the right place.
With a place like that its all luck you might dig and dig and dig and find nothing, then move a rock you have been stepping on all day to find a pocket.
I was mining at the ace of diamonds mine up in herkimer NY earlier this year in September, and we where digging had moved 300-400 hundred pounds of material, next thing you know my buddys telling me to move that im standing on crystals. and sure enough as i was clearing small tailings with a shovel, the tip opened up a medium sized pocket of crystals and decayed calcite, and the crystals poured out right underneath me. So ya never know what you gonna find, you got a smorgasbord of minerals going on there.
Oh, sorry for the double post, but remember to dig safe, especially if you out digging alone. Always clear your over burden and any loose material that is above you that could come down on you. Clear wide then go deep, dont go straight down into a pit that is gonna put loose material above you, unless your 110% sure it cant loosen with vibrations of working and fall.
Its usually good to let a friend/family member know where your at too if your diggin alone, on the rare chance something might happen or that you need help.
I have read of two separate instances this year when gem miners got killed when a bank of loose overburden dirt came down. So be safe, i cant wait to see some gemmy tourmaline come out, best of luck.
Ok you need to zoom in as much as you can I tried to out line the shape so you guys could see what I mean but I found these inside a rock that I broke open in a vug never saw Tourmaline in this dull yellow color maybe its Baryl? My camera really sucks so Its hard to see but these crystals are six sided it is small but still. you can see some striations in the one photo when i hold it under some lite i can see some light green in there. Anyone?