Prospecting for Diamonds in a river, Finding diamonds is not that difficult! Options

[Diamond Digger]

I Posted this on another toppic "sluicing for diamonds" so I thought I shall split it where it can be more visible to people who want to give it a go!

A short discription of How To Find Diamonds in a streambed.
Research is everything, there must be a known Kimberlite area upstream.

It is the oily layer on the outside of every diamond that cause it to remain dry.

However all is not lost! I have added a picture of a diamond sieve, the results and how to do it:
First you need a flat hard wood plastic surface covered with a thin hard carpet (The cheap ozite type Brown color will do)
This could be placed on two rocks/makeshift stand in the shadow Not in the sunlight.
Then you need a sieve as per photo.
A shovel
A small builder’s trowel as per picture.
Two plastic bottles one full of Hydrofluoric acid and one empty (Check warning at the end)
One plastic tea sieve
A small bottle with screw cap to hold the diamonds

A strong back. Ok all the gravel on the bedrock must be shovelled into the sieve, remove the large rocks Unless it glints!
Then you have to gravitate the heavy material to the centre of the sieve. This is accomplished by dipping the sieve in water and rotating it fast from left to right make sure you do not spill any gravel over the sides. Ok while you do this you will be bend over sieve in both hands and make a shaking motion up and down at the beginning of each half rotation in order to lift the gravel and help with the rotation. The heavy materials will settle in the middle of the sieve. After ten or so rotations (It gets easier) You have to see the gravel move from left to right in a circular motion then you know you are doing it right!

You need to drain the water out of the sieve by just resting it on a rock for a few seconds.
Now take the sieve over to your carpet covered (Table) in the shade and with one swift move upend the sieve on the carpet. Now shake the sieve and bang it lightly onto the table to dislodge all stones from the sieve.
If there are large diamonds in the middle of the sieve it will be easy to see and will be surrounded by black gravel/stones/Ilminite/feldspa etc.
You will see the diamonds no matter the color immediately it will pick up the sunlight and reflect it into your eyes! Like a torch being switched on at midnight! (Almost)
If there is one or even a few pick them up with a tweezers and place them in a plastic bottle. Many old timers Like me put the diamond in their mouths, it is a reliable way of testing whether it is a diamond or just a shiny crystal. However a diamond does not get wet a crystal does a diamond does net get warm either a crystal does!

Ok lets say you did not see a diamond now use the trowel to attack the round flat topped pile of gravel carefully from the side and flatten it on the brown carpet looking carefully for a diamond, by shine shape and color.
The more diamonds you see in the rough the easier it gets. An experienced Digger will go through a pile in a matter of minutes. However till you are experienced take it easy. A small stone can pay for your mortgage!
If you find nothing do not despair look for the indicators if you see them keep going you will find a diamond at some point.
Wash all the gravel out of the streambed until you get to the bedrock and keep going. Diamonds can be anywhere as they do not behave the same as gold remember that
To test your diamonds right there in the field you can buy an Ultra Violet light that is battery operated. Diamonds in their natural form fluoresce blue it does not take steam from your breath or does not get warm so try a lighter if it burns your hand it’s not a diamond!
So persistence is the way to go unless you can afford to build a proper wash-pan.
If you find a 5 ct stone you can pay for the manufacture and have some change left!
I will be happy to help just get hold of me anytime, get out there and do your research try and find rivers that run through known Kimberlite areas! Research is everything then stake your claim!


Picture 1 The sieve
Picture 2 what it looks like before you start in with the Trowel.
Picture three Rough stones before you immerse them into Hydrofluoric acid.

A BIG warning here!
Hydrofluoric Acid is the strongest out there do NOT get it on your hands or in your eyes YOU will LOOSE an eye if it splashes into your face. It is the only acid that can get rid of the oily layer and gravel and dirt still sticking to your diamond, it comes out stunning after the acid bath.
So wear goggles and gloves (Acid proof) when using the acid.
I buy two bottles and keep one empty I just dump the diamonds into one bottle then leave it overnight in the acid in the morning I use a plasctic tea sieve to pour to acid out into the other botle and catch the diamonds. I always do this in a non metalic zink.

Have fun!
DD

Attached image(s)

 

[Diamond Digger]

Sunspirit,
Sorry it took so long to leave a comment.
Now that spot where the fisherman found the diamond is where you should start washing the gravel, there must be a pile of diamonds there just for one to lie on top of the soil!
Wow I would be on it in a flash!
Let me know if you find anything.
DD

[sunnymoedawg]

Hey Astrobleme...I am introducing myself on the forum by adding in some info from Dan Hausel link you posted earlier. Wyoming is a gemstone state. There is a great deal of gemstone quality olivine (Peridot) in the Rock Springs Uplift. This is the Leucite Hills volcanic field. There are 22 known lamproite flows, dikes, necks, plugs, cinder cones, and pumice cones lying along the northern flank of the uplift (Hausel, 1998). The magical rock here is not kimberlite, but what was once known as Wyomingite. Petrographic studies show Leucite Hills lamproites contain diopside, phlogopite, titanian-potassium-richterite, leucite along with several other indicators and/or olivine, with minor apatite, perovskite, ilmenite, armalcolite and spinel.

These Leucite Hills volcanoes are similar to leucite lamproites and olivine lamproites in Western Australia and Murfreesburo, Arkansa (Carmicchael, 1967). In particular, Carmichael noted similarities with the Arkansas olivine lamproites and L.H. madupites. This similarity makes the potential diamond exploration target.

Of known lamproites in the world, olivine lamproites offer the greatest potential for signifigant diamond mineralization. In other words where there is olivine gemstones, there is diamonds.

Search Black Rock, sweetwater co., Wyoming to view a classical example of the Leucite Hills. Hausel collected gemstone quality olivine within anthills that were digging up the gemstones near the localizations. Unfortunately, Black Rock is mostly owned by the Union Pacific, with a small sliver of access to the area. Check for claims.

I have a small library of old, rare and current mineral publications released by the WGS and especially Dan Hausel, the gemhunter himself. I currently am working on access to a state land claim surrounded by private land. With luck, I can gain permission and will post any success of gemstones I find. I am after corrundum and garnets at the moment. I really wish to find some diamonds, but need to research a bit more, which leads my next question to diamond digger....

I have the location of "large quantity of garnets in alluvial bottom gravels of xxxx River, 10 miles upstream from "xxxx Ranch" where the old road crosses the river"
other locations include 1/4" garnets just off a mica mine; a scheelite (tungsten), ziosite, epidote, garnet matrix, a site that yields perfect garnets; placer deposit with bright red > 1" in diameter deep red-purple red sapphires

am I correct to assume that where there is large kimberlitic and lamproities and areas with high concentrations of garnets, one should check the areas a bit more closely? I also have found a correlation between vermiculite and corrundum in Wyoming. Hausel indicates that between 10-20% of all vermiculite deposits contain corrundum. How many attics are insulated with red rubies?

Thanks for allowing a introduction HiJack....

If anyone is interested in exploring the Wyo/Colorado diamond gemstone areas or needs a hand to shovel those boulders I am fair game! I live up in Wyoming, near Cheyenne, but have lived/explored the entire Front Range from New Mexico up to Montana. Thank you for the great website and posts!!!