🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Extracting garnets from a mica schist

EricTheCat

Sr. Member
Oct 4, 2011
488
536
Southern Minnesota
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
To quote from Monty Python "and now for something completely different".

I had some time last week and decided to finally find out how hard it is to extract garnets from a mica schist. This is from material I collected from an old mine in South Dakota a few years ago.

It turns out it wasn't that hard to do with a long nose pliers and a vice-grips to crush larger chunks.

These are not gem quality. They are too small to cut and do anything usual with them. I just think they look cool in little containers and since I have a lot of this material I am out nothing but time.

So far I have completely crushed one specimen. I estimate I have about 20 times that material but who knows when I will take the time to extract more.

If anyone decides to do the same with this kind of material definitely wear safety glasses and a mask like you would for most lapidary.

Garnets-2022-07-13-Img_2468SS.jpg


Quarter for scale:
Garnets-2022-07-13-Img_2469SS.jpg


Here is an example of the source material.
Garnets-2022-07-13-Img_2470SS.jpg


Happy hunting.
 

crashbandicoot

Gold Member
Sep 27, 2020
12,129
27,098
Dumas,AR
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
To quote from Monty Python "and now for something completely different".

I had some time last week and decided to finally find out how hard it is to extract garnets from a mica schist. This is from material I collected from an old mine in South Dakota a few years ago.

It turns out it wasn't that hard to do with a long nose pliers and a vice-grips to crush larger chunks.

These are not gem quality. They are too small to cut and do anything usual with them. I just think they look cool in little containers and since I have a lot of this material I am out nothing but time.

So far I have completely crushed one specimen. I estimate I have about 20 times that material but who knows when I will take the time to extract more.

If anyone decides to do the same with this kind of material definitely wear safety glasses and a mask like you would for most lapidary.

View attachment 2036429

Quarter for scale:
View attachment 2036430

Here is an example of the source material.
View attachment 2036431

Happy hunting.
Well,that,s just cool!:icon_thumleft:
 

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