diamonds in the rough

[galaxy51]

I have heard of diamonds being found near the Oregon Idaho border by gold panners. What characteristics do diamonds in the rough have that would make them easily recognizable?

 

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[stoney56]

I do know they come in different colors. Most of the time but not always they're in a shape like two pyramids joined together at the base but not always. Most of them will be pretty small and can be easily missed. You can pan them like gold which is probably why gold panners were noticing them.
In Arkansas at the Crater of Diamonds, you would dig the dirt-put it in a classifying screen-wash it and shake it good (which would more or less put any possible stones in the bottom of the screen)-then you'd dump the contents upside down on a table and look for them that way. Here's a site and pic of roughly what to look for shape wise.

http://www.keyguide.net/diamonds/roughdiamondspix/

 

[GabbyGEP]

Diamonds usually occur in the crystal form of octhedrals(2 pyramids back to back). When panning or sluicing for diamonds, a patch of heavy grease will capture the diamonds and let everything else pass through. Cannot explain why it happens, but has something to do with the atomic charge of the diamonds. JMO.
Good luck in your hunting.

GabbyGEP(Gaylord)

 

[galaxy51]

Thanks, Your combined info gives me a much better understanding of how identify a diamond in the rough. I now have another reason to examine the contents of my gold pan closely.

 

[Nashoba]

Unfortunately, a vast majority of the diamonds found in Oregon are nothing more than industrial grade...Not that there haven't been a few that were gem quality. I'd be sticking to gold if I were you.
~Nashoba~

 

[The Gemologist]

I'm a jeweler and when we drop a diamond on the carpet we cut the lights off and use a flashllight and it really helps, uncut stones are as previously described, mostly shapes of octagonal ect,

I live in Washington state and several diamonds have been found here. They occur randomly in association with volcanic rock.

There are many many references to gold miners finding diamonds in the washing, in most gold mining areas. Including California

Gabby's got it most closely to how i could mine them,

Beware, lots of work

Tom

 

[Postalrevnant]

Great post Galaxy. I always kinda wondered about that myself. I have never had the pleasure to gold pan before, hope to do so someday. But I have always wondered about the look of rough diamonds. And someday I will hopefully get to pan some.

I think first we might take a trip to some of the gem stone places in N. Carolina and buy some buckets and try to get some semi-precious stones. I know that my whole family would love that.

Great info all. Thank you,

Rev

 

[Peg Leg]

One must remember - When you recover a diamond and want it cut you will lose no less than 60%.
Most diamonds found in the U.S. are florescent this means that using a BLACK LIGHT you can pick out the stones anywhere.
When panning for stones take a shovel full of material and put the material in a basket. Shake the basket side to side and up and down for no less than a few minutes. Find a flat place and dump the basket in one move onto this flat place. THEN look at what is on the top of your stones. All the heavy stones will go to the bottom of your basket when shaking and when you dump the basket they will be on top.
You will be surprised what you can recover this way and in a short time.
If you want to know what you have do the old scratch test. It is simple. After a while you will be ble to pick out the different stones.
Peg leg

 

[Eu_citzen]

umm, you mean UV-light right?

 

[OldBillinUT]

Several descriptions that I have read of them say they feel sort of oily. Here is a link to what some look like. http://www.irocks.com/tucson06diamonds.html

 

[cacarr]

This is an ancient thread, but I thought I would add something for anyone who might stumble in here, looking for info about diamonds in Oregon, Washington, California, or Idaho.

After a bit of research, my very strong suspicion is that there are *a lot* more diamonds in Oregon than is suggested by the fairly small number of recorded (and verified) chance discoveries by gold placer miners (although hundreds of not-tiny diamonds have been found in California).

Thing is, darn close to no one looks for diamonds along the Pacific Coast. The Old Timers working the gravels of the Klamath and Sierra Nevada Mountains generally didn't know what they were. Heck, they look like an odd little piece of quartz or just a weathered bit of agate, if you just glance at them. And sluices filled up with black sands will bounce diamonds out.

I have actually, recently, conversed with an older gentleman who has been a professional prospector for years, who told me he was present when a mining partner panned 2 little (but no micro) diamonds out if their sluice tailings.

In this part N. America -- well away from the ancient cratonic lithosphere, where large commercial operations are usually located -- diamonds seem to be associated not with any old volcanic rock, but with big sections of oceanic crust and upper-mantle that got shoved up (obducted) onto the North American plate These rock sections, called "ophiolites," are largely made up of varieties of peridotite (or serpentinized peridotite) -- which is mantle rock.

So the diamonds -- probably *very sparsely* disseminated, compared to the diamond in commercially viable diamondiferous kimberlite pipes -- might be eroding right out of big, extensive bands of exposed ophiolites. But the other possibility is that relatively shallow diamonds (compared to diamonds under thick cratonic crust) are being sampled at depth by magma and brought towards the surface in intrusions, and eventually weather out of some type or another of mafic or ultramafic dikes or sills. Or both could be true -- hosted in ophiolites and intrusions. Or I guess there could even be some (probably lamprophyre) diatremes (pipes or maars) that we haven't found, so *extrusions*.

Taking the Klamath Mountains for example, you've got ophiolites all over the range from when terranes (volcanic islands or whatever) welded to North America. And you have lamprophyre-type intrusions, that could have sampled diamond out of a slab of subducting plate that got stuck in a zone with the right pressure and temp for diamonds to remain stable -- or something along those line. Subduction zone diamonds.

Ad far as I can tell, this is a not really well understood by geologists. And economic geologists don't know for sure what the host rock source is of Pacific Coast region placer macro-diamonds -- particularly in the Klamaths and Sierras.

Since I don't know the Sierra Nevadas as well, if I were going to go look for diamonds, I would look for rivers in the Klamaths that cut through a lot of miles of ophiolites -- rivers with big gravel bars. Even if the diamonds are very sparse in the host rock, quite a lot of them could have accumulated over long periods. (Oh, and IIRC, diamonds have been found particularly in placers fairly rich in platinum group metals and chromite). Research diamond placer mining. Off the too of my head, I might check out some of those huge gravel bars in the S. Umpqua -- but there are many rivers in N. California and SW Oregon that would seem promising.

Some beach combing might be in order too, near the mouth of the Rogue and Chetco, and such. Keep doing that until you have several hundred little bits of "agate," then carefully examine each one of them.

Most of California, Oregon and Washington are made up of accreted terranes. There are exposed ophiolites in the Blue Mountains, and some in Washington, and a lot in the Sierra Nevadas in California. And in B.C., and Alaska. And, indeed, Western Idaho. Break out the geological maps.

I don't reckon we are going to know how many there are until people actually start looking for them.

 

[rocksimpson.OR]

This is an ancient thread, but I thought I would add something for anyone who might stumble in here, looking for info about diamonds in Oregon, Washington, California, or Idaho.

After a bit of research, my very strong suspicion is that there are *a lot* more diamonds in Oregon than is suggested by the fairly small number of recorded (and verified) chance discoveries by gold placer miners (although hundreds of not-tiny diamonds have been found in California).

Thing is, darn close to no one looks for diamonds along the Pacific Coast. The Old Timers working the gravels of the Klamath and Sierra Nevada Mountains generally didn't know what they were. Heck, they look like an odd little piece of quartz or just a weathered bit of agate, if you just glance at them. And sluices filled up with black sands will bounce diamonds out.

I have actually, recently, conversed with an older gentleman who has been a professional prospector for years, who told me he was present when a mining partner panned 2 little (but no micro) diamonds out if their sluice tailings.

In this part N. America -- well away from the ancient cratonic lithosphere, where large commercial operations are usually located -- diamonds seem to be associated not with any old volcanic rock, but with big sections of oceanic crust and upper-mantle that got shoved up (obducted) onto the North American plate These rock sections, called "ophiolites," are largely made up of varieties of peridotite (or serpentinized peridotite) -- which is mantle rock.

So the diamonds -- probably *very sparsely* disseminated, compared to the diamond in commercially viable diamondiferous kimberlite pipes -- might be eroding right out of big, extensive bands of exposed ophiolites. But the other possibility is that relatively shallow diamonds (compared to diamonds under thick cratonic crust) are being sampled at depth by magma and brought towards the surface in intrusions, and eventually weather out of some type or another of mafic or ultramafic dikes or sills. Or both could be true -- hosted in ophiolites and intrusions. Or I guess there could even be some (probably lamprophyre) diatremes (pipes or maars) that we haven't found, so *extrusions*.

Taking the Klamath Mountains for example, you've got ophiolites all over the range from when terranes (volcanic islands or whatever) welded to North America. And you have lamprophyre-type intrusions, that could have sampled diamond out of a slab of subducting plate that got stuck in a zone with the right pressure and temp for diamonds to remain stable -- or something along those line. Subduction zone diamonds.

Ad far as I can tell, this is a not really well understood by geologists. And economic geologists don't know for sure what the host rock source is of Pacific Coast region placer macro-diamonds -- particularly in the Klamaths and Sierras.

Since I don't know the Sierra Nevadas as well, if I were going to go look for diamonds, I would look for rivers in the Klamaths that cut through a lot of miles of ophiolites -- rivers with big gravel bars. Even if the diamonds are very sparse in the host rock, quite a lot of them could have accumulated over long periods. (Oh, and IIRC, diamonds have been found particularly in placers fairly rich in platinum group metals and chromite). Research diamond placer mining. Off the too of my head, I might check out some of those huge gravel bars in the S. Umpqua -- but there are many rivers in N. California and SW Oregon that would seem promising.

Some beach combing might be in order too, near the mouth of the Rogue and Chetco, and such. Keep doing that until you have several hundred little bits of "agate," then carefully examine each one of them.

Most of California, Oregon and Washington are made up of accreted terranes. There are exposed ophiolites in the Blue Mountains, and some in Washington, and a lot in the Sierra Nevadas in California. And in B.C., and Alaska. And, indeed, Western Idaho. Break out the geological maps.

I don't reckon we are going to know how many there are until people actually start looking for them.

I’m an amateur rockhound in the willamette valley, OR, and your reply made my suspicions seem a bit more realistic.

I began collecting micro agates a couple of months ago. Something about the detail and gem quality on a small agate goes unmatched. While closely inspecting one I noticed diamond like qualities. I had very little knowledge on diamonds but I first had to check if this was possible. Finding some stuff about placer diamonds in WA and OR but I didn’t dive any deeper at the time.

I left the topic until today, when I stumbled on this post. The quality of your info is great. I don’t yet understand a lot of what you said, but I hope to very soon.
It seems like - if this is misunderstood by geologists, then we should have more people out there trying to figure this out. I’m inspired, enough to dedicate some time to exploring this. Although I’m not in the traditional areas that diamonds have been found, there’s always a chance.

Here comes some questions that may or may not get answered—-

Is it possible that major flood/glacial events brought alluvial diamonds to southwest Washington/northwest Oregon? Deep in the Columbia basin or down the willamette valley?

The latest work I’ve seen shows evidence of the floods reaching as far south as Eugene.

Which leads to my next question, is there a chance in hell of finding diamonds in the willamette valley?

If not, where do you think they would be?

Would a diamond even make it that far before it got weathered to a crisp?

Would any other gemstones have a chance to alluvially make it to Oregon?

Sorry if this is a bit disjointed I wrote it up pretty quick. To sum it all up- thank you for the info and inspiration. I’ll be on the hunt for unconventional gems.

-rocksimpson from Oregon.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Old thread but interesting none the less. I’m in IL and hunt rocks in the glacial till. I heard diamonds have been found in the till. I paid a geology professor at the U of I a visit and asked about finding diamonds in the till. He told me I’d be looking for an 1/8” size rock! I don’t think that would be possible. Good luck to anyone looking for that needle in a haystack.