Mineral Mondays #39 Gems Of Pala

in #gems5 years ago

Welcome to Mineral Mondays, a series on gems and minerals I've been doing for over 1 year on Steemit. Recently I've found some other rockhounds on Steemit and we will be using the tags #fridaysrock and #rockhound to build the rock & gem lovers community on Steemit. If you like rocks please support the posts under those tags. 

Gems Of Pala

Just over 1 week ago @tokyowomanslife and I went to go dig for tourmaline and beryl at the Oceanview Mine in Pala California. The mine is part of the Pala Mining District which is one of America's most famous gem producing districts. While the Oceanview Mine is only 1 amongst may other well known mines like the Stewart Mine, Tourmaline Queen and others, it is the last one operating.

The mine is a fee dig mine. You pay $75 to sift through the tailings they haul up and dump in a large pile. While most of the better material has been taken during the mining process some of it slips by and ends up in this pile. I am also sure that some of the gems are added to the pile to make sure everyone goes home with something.

History

The Oceanview mine owes its notoriety to two special gems found there, Morganite & Kunzite. Morganite is the pink/peach variety of beryl. It get's it's color from manganese or cesium inclusions. It was named after the banker J.P. Morgan after being nominated by his friend George Kunz who was Tiffany & Co.'s head gemologist. The other members of the beryl family are emerald(green), aquamarine(blue), heliodor(yellow), goshenite(colorless) and red beryl.

Kunzite is the lilac version of spodumene. It was discovered at the Oceanview mine in 1902 and named after George Kunz. It is a lithium aluminums silicate and like morganite it get's it's color from manganese. Other members of the spodumene family are hiddenite(green) and triphane(yellow/clear).

The other gems the Oceanview Mine is known for are tourmaline and aquamarine. The tourmaline mined here comes in all different colors from pink, to green, to blue and of course watermelons and bi-colors. Personally I have been lucky enough to get some blues and bi-colors in the past. My wife found an awesome blue cap, but unfortunately I don't have a picture of it for this post. A blue cap is when the tourmaline is capped on top with a layer of blue.

Finds

I found 3 golf ball sized morganites and my wife found several kunzite crystals including a rare, bi-color kunzite. In addition we both found a bunch of aquamarine, tourmaline, schorl(black tourmaline), garnets, and smokey & skeletal quartz. Here is a picture of about 3/4 of what we found.

Morganite with tourmaline on one side.

Morganite has an awesome quality to it, when you put it in the sun the color increases. It is the opposite reaction of many other precious gems which can fade when exposed to sunlight. I left this piece in the sun for 2 days. You can see the difference in color in the two pictures that follow.

All 3 morganites

Conclusion

If you live in Southern California or plan to visit the Oceanview Mine is located off of Highway 76 in Pala, California, south of Temecula. Their website is http://digforgems.com. The fee to dig is $75. It is well worth it if you know what to look for and can lift a lot of buckets of dirt and rocks. You can also order a high grade ore bag for $100(+shipping) and they will ship it to you!

Thanks for reading!

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Great finds! So did you make out after paying the fees and doing all the sifting? It looks like you found some great specimens! Nominating to @c-squared and resteeming

Hi Melinda, yes we made out fine. Not pictured was the bi-color kunzite, the blue cap tourmaline, skeletal quartz and all the bigger stuff like lepidolite, smokey quartz, etc. The morganite alone can pay for the trip.

Thank you for the nomination!

Minerals will be shipped out later today!

Wow really impressed with your haul!

Thanks @carlgnash. It was a good day. Almost every bucket we filled had something in it.


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

Thank you everyone!

Wow! You really found some beautiful pieces! I don't think we have anyplace around here that you can pay to have fun with their leftovers. I would do that for sure!

Thank you very much for sharing #fridaysrock and #rockhound. I'm enjoying seeing all of the different rocks and minerals.

Ya, most gem mines are defunct in the US. I know there are some copper and fluorite mines up near the great lakes.

Hopefully we will attract more collectors to the tags!

mineral mondays, #rockhound and #fridaysrock -- a good trio for sure! Add #bouldersunday and we got ourselves something great in the making! Thanks for using the tag!! You're a rockstar!

There is a bouldersunday tag? I've come across a few of those in the field!

Yes it was started by @shasta! Share your boulders!

Man that's pretty good for leftovers.... Do you think they salt the dirt a dirt a bit just to keep people coming back?
I've just found out that there are rock hounds on steemit. That is awesome. I have powered through a few posts, is there anything in particular that the community is interested I found one guy who does mainly agate. I have loads of rocks, even indian relics, anything of particular interest?

Good to hear from you @coinsandchains. Yes, I am sure they salt the pile, but I am also sure some of the material is missed just like the old days. So far I've always come out way ahead so I am fine. It's good exercise too!

I am interested in everything, but specialize in Southwest minerals, especially benitoite & red beryl. Usually I post about something I have recently dug up or purchased. Looking forward to your posts.

Howdy rt395! Hey that looks like a fun time for a rock hound! Will some of those be used for jewelry or go to your collection? I'm not a rock hound so I guess I don't know what you do with them! lol. But thanks for an interesting and educational post!

Hi @janton, most of the specimens we either sell or my wife uses them for her jewelry. Of course if we get something special we keep it in our collection. I may keep this morganite, It is terminated(finished growing on top) and a pretty good size.

Thanks for stopping by!

That is very interesting rt395 so it was my pleasure to stop by. So your wife makes jewelry and that means she cuts the rocks or stones down with a machine or tools?

wow! It's beautiful and amazing! :D

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