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Jason
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 254
Location: atlanta
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Posted: Dec 31, 2008 21:33 Post subject: pegmine |
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Hey everybody I am new here and just found out about this place from another forum. I have only been rockhounding and collecting for the past year but I have made huge strides as far as knowledge and experience goes. I figured i would post what i have been doing these past few months. Here is a peg mine in central, GA that I have been helping dig. The owner and I use a backhoe to scrap away the overburden until we reach the kaolin and then dig until we start to see big books of mica and/or different colored k-spar. We are searching for beryl and particularly aquamarine beryl. This peg is totally decomposed except for very small chunks of harder feldspar. There are no pockets in this peg and there may have been at one time but they would have filled in with kaolin over time. Sometimes we find the beryl up close to the quartz lens/or core or quartz off shoots but it seems most of it is found not up against the core but in sections treding away from it. Some of the beryl crystals get real big, up to 100 pounds. Almost all of it is broken or fractured running from opaque to translucent to certain areas being transperant or facetable. The colors that have been pulled out tend to mostly be white, blue, green, and yellow with the most common being blue. I am really interested in pegmatites and have read everything I can find about them. i was going to take the peg workshop this year up in Maine but pushed it off until next year, hopefully. The owner of this peg was gracious enough to take me under his wing and teach me the way things work when digging one. Every time we dig I learn something new and after a few months of working this peg I have gained a lot of experience and know-how. I have had gary freeman give me tips and pointers on what to look for and what to do. He has been a big help ,even though Mt. Mica and this peg are totally different That is one thing I have learned is all pegs are similar in general but they are totally different at the same time.. I just got a new camera about a month ago so i don't have to many pics yet of our mining but the few i do have here they are..let me see if I can post pics(first time here)
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Hard to see but my mattock head is resting on the quartz core |
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Digging under and next to core |
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Digging underneath the quartz core |
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Here is that crystal in the next pic still in the wall. We must have knocked out the middle of it with tyhe shovel.(my finger is pointing to it) |
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Here is the one that was in the wall. It's missing the middle though but it's terminated at least. We about scraped this one up with the backhoe(sample digging this day) |
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One we found last weekend with very small green facet grade on the right side..not enough to cut anything..(we didn't find much this day as we were trying some sample digging) |
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This lone we dug out last weekend notice the facet lines running thorough it. To bad it didn't just cool a little slower.(didn't find much this is from sample hole) |
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We found this crystal right ontop of the core. It has facet grade shot through it. We never found the other half it has to be in the tailings somewhere. |
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Here is a piece of facet grade that was broken off a crystal. My buddy Robert Kyle found this laying on the tailings. If I remember it's 22 carats and all natural. it will only cut about a 4 carat stone because of the way it's shaped with the horns and all |
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Here is one we found 2 weeks ago. it has a real bad dirt staining on it which I can only guess measn it was close to the surface or contact zone of the peg..notice the blue facet area on it |
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Jason
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 254
Location: atlanta
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Posted: Dec 31, 2008 21:40 Post subject: Re: pegmine |
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Here are some more pics I couldn't fit in on the last post
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Here is the path to the peg |
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Contact zone between the peg and host rock...err..host dirt |
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Here are mica books another good sign that tells you are near..very near |
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Here are the big mica books which let you know you are in the right spot. Some of these get huge |
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Here is some schrol which also lets you know you are getting somewhat clost to a beryl producing area. i have noticed that they tend to point towards the higher minerialized areas. sort of like a street sign saying..go here...go here.. |
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This is a different colored kaolin area/k-spar. When you see this you know you are in an area of highwer minerization. A lot of times these little areas form a diamond shape for some reason and right blow them you are almost guaranteed to find beryl...hmm..strange |
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gemlover
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Easley, SC
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Posted: Dec 31, 2008 22:39 Post subject: Re: pegmine |
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Hi Jason, we meet again, and again, and again.
John
_________________ John
John Atwell Rasmussen, Ph.D.. AJP
Geologist and Gemologist |
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Jason
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Posts: 254
Location: atlanta
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Posted: Dec 31, 2008 23:17 Post subject: Re: pegmine |
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Well John, either I am following you or you are following me LOL
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anuragge
Joined: 01 Mar 2011
Posts: 1
Location: india
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Posted: Mar 01, 2011 04:40 Post subject: Re: pegmine |
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Jason wrote: | Here are some more pics I couldn't fit in on the last post |
hi jason
i am a mines owner in india withtwo quartz mines and 1 mica mine...in one of my quartz mine,i get a lot of stuff as shown in ur pics here. Please guide...
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ellencmoe
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 35
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Posted: Mar 01, 2011 16:00 Post subject: Re: pegmine |
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Thanks for the pictures, Jason. I esp like that you showed the mine face, the path and the gems - a really great overview.
I love the southern California pegs and looking at your gemmy aquamarine makes me want to hop in the car and head south. Work and family sure get in the way of fun rock hounding.
Ellen
Los Angeles
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Leodore Champigny
Joined: 17 Feb 2011
Posts: 6
Location: Massachusetts
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Posted: Mar 02, 2011 12:02 Post subject: Re: pegmine |
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Jason,
We mine a simple pegmatite in Southern New Hampshire. From what i can tell the only difference between our mine and yours is that we do not have any of the decomposed material, it is "rock hard" no pun intended. Our best gem aquamarine crystals are found in smokey quartz. One of they key indicators for us is the course mineralization, usually we will find large feldspar crystals along with mica books and large beryls along the contact between the smokey quartz and the rest of the peg. When the beryls grow into the smokey they are almost always good gem material. And where there is one beryl there are usually more that you can't see. We think that is that these originally were pockets which allowed the crystals to grow, sometimes rather large, and were later filled in by the smokey quartz. To throw you off however this is not always the case as we have found nice aquamarine away from the smokey quartz. Everything is well documented on our website where you may see the pictures of what i am describing. It will not let me type out the web address to this post but if you google toveco specimen mining it should come up. If you have any further questions let me know. Always glad to help out a follow miner.
Lee
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