Gem Mining...Questions and Concerns

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally Posted by SpiritWarrior So, do you sell these to make it worth your while or keep them as souvenirs? I mean, they'd all sell either polished or unpolished. Ever come across Tigers Eye? Or the rarer, Hawks Eye? Just wondering - I hear they don't have that hologram effect until they are polished but would love to see 'em in raw form. Reading up, they are mostly found in Africa or Asia. I am curious if there are ANY places to mine them in the US at all.

I think we've given away about half of what we found and have kept the rest for ourselves as souvenirs. Haven't sold any. That one big crystal is somewhere around 400 cts or larger - even it's unpolished state it might fetch 50$. But we didn't do the digging to make money. We just did it for the fun.

Haven't found any Tiger eye. I know that they have been found at the Hiddenite Mine in NC. I seem to recall that they can be mined in the Western US probably in Arizona and New Mexico, but that's just a vague recollection.

[Attalus]

Hey, Micah. How goes it with you and Annie?

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally Posted by Attalus Hey, Micah. How goes it with you and Annie?

Check your pms.

[Larry_OHF]

While we're on the topic of mining for rocks, do any of you have any fossils? I've always thought it'd be cool to have an ancient rock with some fish or insect in it, but I've never decided one what kind to get so I still don't have one. What kind of fossils would be cool to obtain? I wouldn't waste time on plant fossils. I want a bug or something. Also, I like amber. Amber that has turned into a rock is really cool. Maybe with a bug inside.

Crap,,,here come the Jurassic Park jokes...

[Cerek]

There are number of the gem mines in my area (western NC). One of my college buddies is from Franklin and actually worked at one the operations there. It was most likely the Sheffield Mine, from the sound of it. He confirmed the company he worked for did "seed" the sluice and buckets. They had bags of gem chips that they would randomly distribute in the buckets and sluice. I would imagine most of the ones with a sluice are the same way. I've never gone to one myself.

Sounds like the flat-rate dig-for-a-day operations are more legit. As for evaluating anything you find, I would take that to an independent jeweler for appraisal. Since you have paid for the opportunity to find gems, there shouldn't be any problem from the staff or security in keeping what you do find...even if you get lucky enough to find that rare gem that IS worth a good amount of money. Even though the place my friend worked seeded their product, the staff was still very friendly and supportive of their customers and never tried to steal any actual finds they might have made, but I can definitely see the potential for that to happen since most gems don't always look like a gem in their raw form.

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally Posted by Larry_OHF While we're on the topic of mining for rocks, do any of you have any fossils? I've always thought it'd be cool to have an ancient rock with some fish or insect in it, but I've never decided one what kind to get so I still don't have one. What kind of fossils would be cool to obtain? I wouldn't waste time on plant fossils. I want a bug or something. Also, I like amber. Amber that has turned into a rock is really cool. Maybe with a bug inside. Crap,,,here come the Jurassic Park jokes...

Green River Shale fish fossils! You can find them online for very reasonable prices. If you want to dig your own there are a number of commercial sites in Utah and Wyoming where you can hunt for them yourself. Don't have pictures of the ones I dug up but here's an example that's pretty close.

[Hindsight]

I have to admit; I love all that stuff! If you get me in a bunch of rocks, you'll have a hard time getting me out.

I have seen shows about digging through the dirt buckets, which looked very cool to me. Nova Scotia does not have much to look at; mostly boring granite. When I was in Ontario, it was more interesting.
I did go with some friends to... I think it's Parrsborro NS a few years back. There's an area where people go specifically for that. We found a few pieces of amethyst and some other interesting stones there.