How to locate garnets

jackiedanger

Jr. Member
Apr 7, 2014
24
5
Foresthill, Ca
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
First time mining for gold yesterday. At the end, as we were cleaning our sluice, mixed in with some flakes of gold, was a tiny (I mean tiny) translucent red stone. I want to believe its garnet. Can anyone point me in the right direction to look for more? I live in an area that was heavily placer mined for gold, and I find quartz strewn all over the place (clear pieces, some with inclusions of rutile, chlorite, and green tourmaline). Should I just keep panning the creek and hope I get lucky? Or should I look for other rocks it grows with? Thanks!
 

The garnets you find in fast moving streams are usually pretty beat,my experience anyway.What you need to find are the pockets they were formed in.
 

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You have to find the pegmetite,highly crystallized,sometimes, rotten granite.Then you have to come across the clay like substance (i forget the correct name)that fills the gas pockets,the stuff i come across is usually pink.if you find traces of it then youre near a pocket.If youre working on some pegmetite with a hammer and chisel and your chisel disappears after you hit it.then you found a pocket.careful reaching in if you find one some crystals can cut your hands to ribbons.read some websites on pegmetite theyll probably help you out.when you open a pocket you never know whats going to be in it.could be quartz,topaz,amethyst ,tourmaline,etc.Depends whats around where you live.
 

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You can try mindat.com . Just type in your area in the location field on their website. It will give you a detailed mineral map for that area. Garnets, should be in that region. Red j. C. Is right about that mineral tearing up your hands. If you are finding garnets, then your on the right depth for finding gold. Good luck.
 

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They say (Morefield Mine in Southern VA) that garnet dwells under or around tree stumps.. or at least thats where they told us to look when last on their property in 2004.. We tend not to do any real serous digging.. and frequent the Gem mine where the buckets are seeded with small garnet chips. Walking home one afternoon I passes a driveway, lined with stones that have red dots in/on them.. these dots are a cluster of Garnets and the drive way owner never had a clue as to what it was.. They just thought it was pretty.
 

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http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0269/report.pdf+++++ than google usgs forest hill garnet search books google page 133 +155 u cand find first report corundum and second one gold also district facts if u give me exact location maybe calculating altitude and extension u may find a better spot for garnet good luck
 

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