Georgia, Prospecting in GA Options

[amethystguy]

It seems a lot of you guys are from the midwest or western half of the country. I have never rockhounded out west but I am blessed to be here in the south-east which , at least, holds a candle to the awesome sites out west. I pretty much prospect and/or dig every weekend. I will be hitting up Jacksons crossroads amethyst mine on Friday and then the Hogg mine on Sat. for some beryl and hopefully some aqua. I also have a prospecting trip in the works for an old mine site in Fannin county, GA. The location, after a bunch or research, is on Springer Mtn. up in N. Georgia. It is right by where they filmed DELIVERANCE, twang, twang, twang(sorry pitiful attempt at banjo). Well my source said "green beryl of emerald quality". I assumed it was just regular green beryl but I came to find out later that it was actually small emeralds found there. They tend to be less that a quarter-inch and very sparse but they are there. this is the only occurence of beryl colored by chromium or vanadium that I can think of in Georgia. I have a prospecting trip planned for sometime in Dec. or Jan.(best time to go is winter as the forest is easier to navigate). I have the Lot and section number that the mine is "supossed" to be on but I am waiting for a detailed topo map to help. I will keep you guys informed as to what happens. Later
Jason
amethystguy

[amethystguy]

Well, I am off to dig some ammy's. I will try to get some pics of what I find and post them for you. Hopefully the gods of purple smile on me today. Later

[CP]

Ok Jason.....it's Sunday, how did it go?

Hope you got out there and found a bunch of cool goodies!!

[amethystguy]

Well I am getting a new camera from brandsmart sometime this week which has a microlens so I am waiting to use a good camera instead of the crappy old one. I also got a brand new computer with 19" flat screen and a brand new laptop today. Early christmas for me. At JXR on Fri. my Dad and I dug all morning and didn't find anything but chips and chuncks but after noon I found a crystal about the size of a golfball. Within a minute we started finding more crystals about the same size. Found a little honey hole that must have been where the trackhoe had dumped a load. All good points and a few with multiple points but the color was only light pink. Found one deep purple with blue flash but it was all chewed up inside. Went to The Hogg on Sat. and had a friend meet me from Dalton, GA. This was her second time ever digging or collecting rocks. Well I usually go home with a small bucket full of beryl and tourmaline but not this time. It rained all day, hard. I only found some chunks of blue and one decent half crystal of beryl(half split down the c-axis) but it was well formed and was terminated and not just broken at the top. My friend who met me down there found, just laying on the surface, a chunk of rock. She brought it to me to identify. At first glance I thought it was a chunk of striped quartz because the color looked so dark. Now this chunk was very weird shaped and the fractures in it all ran parallel to each other but it must weigh 2 pounds. As I looked at it I thought this can't be quartz it's deep blue and green. It was a huge chunk of a broken beryl crystal that was shot through with facet grade deep blue and green aquamarine. When I say deep blue I mean people wish to have aqua this color and especially aqua like this that is not treated. Unbelievable! I the thing about it was she found it in one of my tailings piles that I had dug about 2 months ago. I more than likely dug it out but cast it aside thinking it was a big chunk of nstriped quartz. The chunks are hard to spot sometimes as dirt sticks to the sides much easier than a good hex with nice sleek sides. I emailed her to send me a pic as we didn't have a camera. So I hope she can send one so I can post it. Once I get my camera I will have to figure out how to post pics on this site. Let me see if this works.. http://dirtyrockhounds.proboards19.com/ind...mp;page=1#31658 and http://dirtyrockhounds.proboards19.com/ind...amp;page1#31657
These are some stuff I posted a while back on a different forum site Not very good pics but hopefully that will change with my new equipment. I will try to post some new pics on here within a few weeks.

[CP]

Nice stuff! and yep the links worked fine.
Sounds like you both had a great day and we will be looking forward to more pics later......btw, it's very very easy to post pics here. Even an auto resizer now.

CP