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  1. I spent several years prospecting for diamonds in the Green River basin in Wyoming. never have found one. Last time I was there I left a couple of 8" x 48" sluices in two dry washes. Went back to check them last week. They were completely covered by sand/mud/gravel, so no longer working as sluices...LOL. But I cleaned them out and reset them, and in one, in an area that has produced the most diamond-indicator minerals, produced some nice gem quality chrome diopside, including one 1.46 carat piece, which is pretty rare for Wyoming. Thought you gem-heads might enjoy the pics. Also a pic of some other diamond indicators that were in the sluice, including ilmenite, and spinel.
  2. “A California woman discovered a 4.38-carat yellow diamond in Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park last month, the state Parks Department said. Noreen Wredberg, of Granite Bay, California, was visiting Hot Springs National Park with her husband, Michael, when she decided to stop by Crater of Diamonds."I first saw the park featured on a TV show several years ago," Wredberg told the Parks Department. "When I realized we weren't too far away, I knew we had to come!"” more at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/finders-keepers-woman-finds-4-carat-yellow-diamond-national-park-n1280650
  3. Hey everybody, glad to have found your forum here. I'm a woodworker and use various crushed materials including soapstone as inlay substrate in some of my pieces, and I thought I'd venture out into the mineralogy world to see if I might find some advice. I'm in search of new color tones of the blue and green type but I'm unfamiliar with what minerals might be of use to me. Would you have any suggestions for what minerals I might take a look at for future potential color sources? Dark / solid hues tend not to work as well with the natural wood colors, but the medium hues certainly do. A material need not be as soft as soapstone to be useful, just crushable (if that's even a word). Thanks, I'm all ears!
  4. worked up a couple blades of gold sheen obsidian for the local prospecting club to give out in their monthly raffles. Just need to cut some antlers and mount them into the handles.
  5. Not all of the good stuff that comes out of the ground in Australia is gold one of my favorite rocks is Mookaite a very fine jasper that comes out of western australia ( windalia radiolarite) because you can make things like this with it.
  6. Last month I started to get a bit bored with my usual Snowbird gig of bicycling, paddle boarding, beachcombing, etc, so I decided to check out some creeks and the Peace River about 3 hrs west of me. This area was covered by shallow seas millions of years ago, and more recently saw the Ice Ages....so a cool mix of fossils can be found. Here is one of the creeks I hunted(cue the banjo music from “Deliverance” lol): So you kayak and/or wade in water of various depths looking for gravels in the bottom, then you dig and sift. All this is done in Gator and snake habitat, so one must stay aware of one’s surrounding while working the gravels: Here’s some of my favorite finds. A fossilized prehistoric bison tooth and a baby Megalodon shark tooth...the Megs are small here, as these shallow seas were the nursery. The next pic has a fossil tortoise leg spur, a crocodile tooth, and 2 extinct Snaggeltooth Shark teeth. Here’s fossilized stuff from my last hunt....upper left are turtle shell fragments; upper right turtle nuchal bones, a prehistoric tapir tooth, a broken Meg; then a whole bunch of shark teeth. I think I’ve discovered a new hobby and passion to enjoy while here in Florida half a year! And as a bonus, it’ll help keep me in gold hunting shape for when I’m back out west!😄
  7. This is an example of a mineral that develops an electrical charge during temperature change. Can anyone name this mineral? one clue it was discovered in Death Valley.
  8. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/style/crystals-mining-quartz-herkimer.html?action=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage (Author's name is Alexandra Marvar. Title is: Got Crystals? Gem Mining Could Be Your Full-Time Job.) Ugh. More/less the typical article that makes finding gems sound easier and more profitable than reality. Besides jewelry applications, they mention the New Age pseudoscience proponents. (Hey, maybe a good sales opportunity for LRL snake oil peddlers!) I am cutting and pasting one late quote which many of us can relate to: Among those freelancers is Ron Murray, 58, an osteopath in Seattle who mined quartz at Herkimer Diamond Mines from Memorial Day to Labor Day this year. For his first six years digging crystals, Mr. Murray said he was “too attached” to part with anything he found. But this year, upon returning home to Seattle, he planned to keep the top 5 percent of his harvest, and sell everything else. “Very few people can do this,” he said. “It takes stamina. It takes knowledge. It takes masochism.” Like many others who share his passion for crystal hunting, he calls it an addiction — one propelled by the unshakable thought that the next pocket of untold treasure may open up on the next swing.
  9. I have always wanted to visit this park. Large diamond was found this month. When I was younger I prospected for diamonds in SW Wyoming. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-finds-9-07-carat-diamond-arkansas-state-park/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6i&linkId=100453663
  10. “The Great Basin has some of the most unusual natural history that's buried beneath its soil. Scientists say there was period either thousands to millions of years ago when woolly mammoths, giant sloths, and prehistoric bison would roam the area that we know today as Nevada. Recently, some of those animals from around and before the Ice Age have resurfaced. Tom Gordon lives in Carson City with his wife. He has plenty of space around his property and enjoys a good sweat from a home improvement project. He bought a couple of trees to plantand began digging holes around his fence. While digging these trenches, he hit some rocks but he also hit something that he'd never see before. "I had to take a step back and realize what I'm hitting is some bones from animal," says Gordon. "At first I thought it may have been some chicken bones or a deer but once I dug it out of the ground, I found a full jaw with teeth. My jaw even dropped."” Rest of the story with photos here
  11. Image: Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto has showcased its rare pink, red, violet and blue diamonds from the Argyle mine in Western Australia virtually to a group of collectors, connoisseurs and luxury jewellery houses. There are a few here: https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/rio-tinto-previews-rare-argyle-gems-including-six-hero-diamonds/
  12. I have been going through some old photos. This one might interest some members. To get the scale, the gold nugget is about 165 gm or 5 ounces plus.
  13. Hello all, I'm currently up in Georgia working on family property, getting ready for hunting season!🦌 I'm with my son and dad, so no time to detect this trip! But there's always time to hunt for flint and arrowheads! Most all the fields are planted now, so hunting areas are limited to washes, and recently cleared areas! Finishing up work this morning, i did some scouting in an area cleared last winter! Had some rains since than, so figured it may have exposed something! We found some knapped piece's yesterday! And were back there again! My son had scouted the area, but missed a keeper! It's tough to find one that has not been broken! But this one was small enough to be intact! It was laying on top of the ground, shining in the sun! My first intact small arrowhead! Still have more work, and sight hunting to do! Joe D.👍👍
  14. Just returned from a few days WAY up north near Happy Camp, CA. We weren't detecting but looking for something valuable never the less. I've heard about what's referred to as "Happy Camp jade" since high school but never went looking for it. Finally got a local guide who took me and Miner John up into the mountains near Indian Creek to find some. And find some we did! Actually found a lot more than the pictures here but some of the pieces were literally boulders and too heavy to pack out. A little research shows this is officially called Californite, not a "true" jade, but a variation because of it's unique colorations. We were told on the other side of the creek from where we were is a huge boulder with spider webs of gold incased in it, but the water was too high right now to reach it. So, a fall trip is planned. Anyway, if interested, do a quick Google search for it. Very cool stuff. Going to cut and polish a bit of it later to show it off. Digger Bob
  15. I just got home from a 3 day Nevada trip. Went back down to the drywash where I found the multi-oz nuggets in June. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The 6 x 10 coil on my GM24K is bad, and I really wanted at least a 10" coil, so hauled out the old GM3. It rewarded me with a multi-pound hunk of copper....or at least it's got copper in it. Same grayish metal clear through. Weighs just over a kilogram. I sent the bigger nugget I found in June to an assay lab. Should, know what the metal is in a couple of weeks. This nugget, along with another golfball-sized nugget were found about 100 yards up the wash from the last one I found in June. This morning I covered the area carefully with the 6" coil on the GM3, but found zero gold, or other nuggets. I think this one is close to it's origins. I can't see something this hefty moving very far in a relatively dry climate. I need to go back and do some digging, but just can't manage it in this heat. Going to have to wait for late fall. Jim
  16. I have been to the Peace River in Florida, one of the best sites to hunt for meg teeth. I am not sure if they qualify as a rock or mineral but the normal hunting method is simply dig as much sand/dirt/muck as you can and sift through it. If some type of detector could help ID a meg tooth it would save a lot of time. There are also some off shore sites in the Gulf of Mexico that produce lots of meg teeth. Anyone have experience doing this or any advice to offer.
  17. Here's a couple of Ethiopian fire opal specimens, that my wife and i found last year here at Reno's Gem and Mineral show. Hope you enjoy the colors! ht
  18. anyone want to guess? I never really thought to much about this chunk of blue rock until Mitchel posted the link for the natural science auction and I spotted the Chinese turquoise in the catalog. Holding the stone it feels hard enough my biggest concern is it looks too good? Doing some research died Howlite is often substituted for turquoise, the test that was recommended was to rub an area with cotton soaked in nail polish remover looking for any transfer of dye to the cotton or color change in the stone, doing this test the color was stable and no blue transferred to the cotton. Running a finger nail over the spider webbing another test I can feel a slight ridge as I am supposed to and the color under magnification looks natural. The close-up is using 10x on my phone looking through a 10x loop under magnification the matrix looks less black and more of a rust brown and a mat finish. Anyone have any guess? I sent an inquiry to Heritage auctions so we’ll see what they have to say. Total weight of this stone is 8lbs 9.2oz I think if my math is correct converts to 19,208ct. Be nice if it not treated stabilized color enhanced and of course actually turquoise?
  19. I’m new to prospecting and need help identifying please. What kind of minerals and rocks do k have?
  20. “Scientists say they have discovered a "stunning" trove of thousands of fossils on a river bank in China. The fossils are estimated to be about 518 million years old, and are particularly unusual because the soft body tissue of many creatures, including their skin, eyes, and internal organs, have been "exquisitely" well preserved. Palaeontologists have called the findings "mind-blowing" - especially because more than half the fossils are previously undiscovered species. The fossils, known as the Qingjiang biota, were collected near Danshui river in Hubei province. More than 20,000 specimens were collected, and a total of 4,351 have been analysed so far, including worms, jellyfish, sea anemones and algae. They will become a "very important source in the study of the early origins of creatures", one of the fieldwork leaders, Prof Xingliang Zhang from China's Northwest University, told the BBC. Details of the findings were published in the journal Science on Friday.” For details and photos see the full article at BBC
  21. There a some very knowledgeable experts here on all kind of rocks so thought I’d ask if anyone here was familiar with this type of quartz crystal and what the host rock and inclusions might be? In the close up’s the gold color is a bit washed out and pale, but under a loop it’s at least interesting looking and crystalline in structure with a pleasant goldfish color. My wife bought them 10-15 years back although I’m not sure who she got them from she said the quartz came from Brazil, I don’t know anything else on their origin or value. They are cut and polished in a way to magnify the little bit of host rock matrix and little inclusions inside the quartz crystal.
  22. All of these are among finds I have kept from the past. They have been in a storage unit. I am fascinated with geology but have trouble ID'g rocks and don't like to smash em. This is a lot of pics ... maybe too many?! Thanks in advance for all who take a moment to share their expertise. Much regards! ^ is this part of a thunderegg? ^ the shell of the rock above (part of a thunderegg?) ^ could this be a thunderegg or just jasper? ^ a pyrite next to my thumb, is the middle rock a chalcopyrite? ^ shell of the rock pictured below ^ assume this is a banded agate? ^ could it be a geode? ^ not a great pic -- this coloration is actually light to deep purple/ violet ^ heavy, as if a cannonball, damn near perfectly round ^ also heavy nearly round rocks ^ sunstone? found in a creek north of the Arctic Circle ^ can't even guess ... looks like a vein within a vein, what could that material be? ^ nature couldn't create such an indent, could it? ^ same stone as above ... is this a relic of sorts? ^ same stone as above ^ could this have been a spear head? ^ might this be a corondum? ^ same rock as above; what are those inclusions -- jasper? can't be rubies.. ^ same as above ^ what happens when your 3 year old daughter finds your rocks!
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