Finally Made It Into The Green River Basin In Wyoming

[Jim in Idaho]

 After our muddy attempt in June, where we had to wait 18 hours for things to dry enough we could turn around and go back home, we finally made it in last week. The roads were dry, and so were all the creeks. Had to haul our ore material 15 miles to find water for the jig. Found considerable amounts of chrome diopside, and, of course, garnets. The majority of what's in the pic came from one small area about 6' x 20' that we scraped the surface gravel off of the first day. We did 3x that amount the second day, and got very little. In between one day we went over and poked around the Butcherknife Draw area, but found little. The spot I found a few miles from Butcherknife is still far and away the richest spot I've found for larger chrome diopside. One weird thing happened on our last day. I had decided to dig a hole to see if I could get down to the false bedrock layer, in the hopes there might be a concentration of gems there. I had to dig through some larger pieces of the false bedrock, which is sort of like caliche. When I got down about 2', I ran into a very dark brown, rich-looking material similar to topsoil, with little gravel in it. After 3 days of digging, classifying, and jigging, I was beat, and gave it up. But, that soil kept nagging at my mind. I have been all over the basin, covering 100 square miles over the last 12 years, and I have NEVER seen soil like that...not once. So, we have to go back. I had no probe to drive in and see how deep it goes, and i was too stupid to think of filling some buckets to bring home, of which I had plenty. So, I've ordered one of those sampling tube augers to take, and will make some extension handles for it, so I can go down at least 10' if it extends that far. Wondering what the soil is will drive me nuts. To be down under the clay layer, it has to be really old....possibly 1,000's of years.

Jim

[Geologyhound]

Looks like you have some nice transparent ones there!  Since kimberlite is the typical host rock, have you ever recovered a diamond?  Of course the Green River basin is also famous for fossils!

[Valens Legacy]

Very nice looking rocks on your hunt.

[Mike_Hillis]

Jim, do you do your own lapidary work or do you sell the stones?   The chrome diopside is very pretty.  I could easily mistake it for emerald.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

HH
MIke

[Jim in Idaho]

2 hours ago, Mike_Hillis said:

Jim, do you do your own lapidary work or do you sell the stones?   pretty.  I could easily mistake it for emerald.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

HH
MIke

Mike, I do some gem work, but chrome diopside requires some special care because its brittle. I have a couple of gemmy pieces of it, but have yet to attempt faceting it. The pyrope garnets are incredibly beautiful in a "brilliant" cut, but I never find any bigger than 1/4". I'll try and post a pic of a couple I did several years ago. A professional cutter told me he was amazed I managed to get 32 facets into a gem that small...lol. The difficulty is finding chrome diopside with enough clarity in a large enough piece to facet. The two garnets in the pic are only 1/8" in diameter.

Jim

[Geologyhound]

Nice!  Have you ever gone to southern Oregon to dig sunstones?  You can get some reds and greens, but they are generally larger.  I can post some pics of some of my rough if you would like.

[Cascade Steven]

Congratulations on some nice looking stones.

[Jim in Idaho]

16 hours ago, Geologyhound said:

Looks like you have some nice transparent ones there!  Since kimberlite is the typical host rock, have you ever recovered a diamond?  Of course the Green River basin is also famous for fossils!

In 12 years of prospecting the Basin, I've never seen a diamond. But I do believe they are there, and I also believe the spot I discovered a few years ago has a high potential for diamonds, Every trip over there, I find new evidence I'm in a good locale. It will either happen this year, or I'll probably give up the search. I will have exhausted the potential, unless something new shows up...as it did on this last trip. There were k-pipes discovered in that area by drilling. None had commercially viable diamond numbers, however. I'm more interested in finding a pocket of placer diamonds.

Jim

[Jim in Idaho]

3 hours ago, Geologyhound said:

Nice!  Have you ever gone to southern Oregon to dig sunstones?  You can get some reds and greens, but they are generally larger.  I can post some pics of some of my rough if you would like.

Nope. I've heard of them, of course. There were a few diamonds found not far from there. They were found in gold sluices on the Owyhee River in both Oregon and Idaho. So, it's on my list. When I finally get into that country, I'll probably try for some sunstones, too.

Jim

[Cascade Steven]

Jim: 

Do you know, per chance, who did the drilling for diamonds, and if so can you share the information?  Just curious.