Hello everybody!
I am making a public forum invite (pay members and non-pay members), to a Barite dig this coming Sunday and Monday! (Oct.22nd and 23rd, 2017)
(I am avoiding Saturday because of the cold windy weather that day)
The Barite location is near the Colorado/ Nebraska border. (Nearest gas station is in Sterling, Colorado) -- (it is a 2 hour drive from Denver)
I cannot have TOO many people show up, so I will give out directions to those who message me, or post that they are coming on this topic. (please be sure that you are gonna make it, so someone else that can make it does not miss out!)
The Barites are found in 25 million year old volcanic ash (that is now hardened white clay). Regular rock hammers can work for digging, but you can also effectively use Chisels, Mattocks/GeoPicks, SpadeShovels, etc... (leave the 2 handed sledge hammers at home, they don't work very well here.)
If you have any questions please post them here, so I can answer them by Saturday.
Here are some pictures of the dig area, and some previous finds of Barite, and Calcite.
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Hope to see ya'll out there! (sorry for the short notice!)